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MEMOIRS 


OF 


-XMJoGu   «=*>;-) /i^^^-'-'  jif  ^  '  ^ 


LUCIE  N    BONAPARTE, 


(PRINCE    OF    CANINO.) 


WRITTEN    BY    HIMSELF. 


TRANSLATED    FROM    THE    ORIGINAL    MANUSCRIPT,   UNDER    THB 
IMMEDIATE    SUPERINTENDENCE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 


PART    THE    FIRST, 
(From  the  year  1792  to  the  year  8  of  the  Republic.) 


NEW-YORK 

PUBLISHED    BY    HARPER    & 
NO.      82      CLIFF-  STR 

1836. 


S 


A 


INTRODUCTION. 


Since  the  consular  republic,  under  all  governnnents,  the 
pamphleteers  have  too  often  made  me  the  subject  of  their 
leisure.  Revelations,  secret  memoirs,  collections  of  anec- 
dotes, the  fruits  of  imaginations  ^^nt  shame  or  decency, 
have  not  spared  me.  I  have  reao'dlf  of  ih'^m  in  my  retire- 
ment, and  I  was  at  first  surprised  how  I  could  have  d'-awn 
upon  myself  so  many  calumnies,  never  having  offended  a.iy 
person.  But  my  astonishment  ceased  when  I  had  better 
appreciated  my  position  :  removed  from  public  affairs,  with- 
out influence,  and  almost  always  in  silent  or  open  opposition 
to  the  powers,  though  suflficiently  near  to  keep  them  con- 
stantly in  fear  of  my  return  to  favour,  how  was  it  possible 
for  the  malice  of  the  courtiers  to  leave  me  in  repose?  And 
since  the  downfall  of  my  family,  they  have  thought,  without 
doubt,  that  it  would  not  be  displeasing  to  the  ruling  powers 
to  continue  their  noble  ivork  of  calumny.  I  resigned  myself, 
therefore,  to  what  appeared  to  be  ihe  natural  effect  of  a  posi- 
tion (hat  I  had  chosen  for  myself,  or  had  been  imposed  upon 
me  ;  and  I  have  left  the  field  open  to  those  brave  gentry 
who  delight  in  oppret.sing  the  proscribed.  I  have  found  in 
my  conscience,  with  which  Providence  has  blessed  me,  suf- 
ficient to  console  me  for  every  injustice.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, for  a  personal  end  that  I  have  resolved  to  publish  these 
memoirs  ;  I  do  it  because  they  appear  to  offer  materials  of 
some  value  to  a  history  so  fruitful  in  great  events,  of  which 
tho  serious  study  may  be  useful  in  future  to  my  country. 
Public  opinion  will  inform  me  if  I  have  deceived  myself; 
and  in  that  case,  this  first  part  of  my  memoirs  will  be  all 
that  I  shall  allow  myself  to  publish. 

A  2 


58978 


,V     ~.'*-- 


MEMOIRS,    ETC. 

CHAPTER  I. 

CORSICA. 


*'  There  is  still  a  country  in  Europe  capable  of  legislation.  It  is  the 
island  of  Corsica.  The  valour  and  constancy  with  which  those  brave 
people  recovered  and  defended  tVieir  libeity,  merits  that  some  wise  man 
should  teach  them  to  preserve  it.  I  have  a  presentiment  that  one  of  these 
days  that  little  island  will  astonish  Europe." — Contrat  Social  de  J.  J. 
Rousseau,  chap.  X. 


The  Bonaparte  Family — The  French  Fleet  in  the  Bay  of  Ajaccio — Popu- 
lar Society  of  the  Admiral's  Vessel — The  Marseillese  Conscripts — Fate 
of  the  Agents  of  the  Ancient  Regime  Return  of  Paoli — His  reception 
at  Ajdccio — His  sentiments  with  regard  to  England  and  France — His 
residence  at  Rostino — His  wonderful  memory — Our  separation — My  de- 
parture for  the  Continent — Dangers  and  Flight. 

When  the  revolution  opened  in  1789,  the  g^rand  era  of  po- 
litical reform,  I  entered  my  fifteenth  year.  After  having- 
been  alternately  for  some  lime  at  the  college  of  Autun,  and 
at  the  military  school  of  Brienne,  lastly  at  the  seminary  of 
Aix  in  Provence,  I  returned  to  Corsica.  My  mother,  a 
widow  in  the  prime  of  her  life,  devoted  herself  to  the  care  of 
her  numerous  family.  Joseph,  the  eldest  of  her  children, 
was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and  seconded  her  attentions  to 
us  with  ardour  and  with  a  paternal  affection.  Napoleon, 
two  years  younger  than  Joseph,  was  just  returned  from 
France  with  our  sister  Marianne — Eliza  from  the  Ecole 
Royale  of  St.  Cyr.  Louis,  Jerome,  Pauline,  and  Caroline 
were  still  children.  A  brother  of  my  father,  the  Archidiacre 
Lucien,  was  become  the  chief  of  our  family,  and  though 
gouty  and  bedridden  for  some  time  past,  he  watched  over 
our  interests  without  ceasing.  If  Providence  had  struck  us 
with  a  cruel  blow  in  depriving  us  so  early  of  our  father,  it 
compensated  for  that  loss,  as  far  as  possible,  in  leaving  us 


8  MEMOIRS    OP 

yet  for  some  time  that  excellent  uncle,  and  in  endoAving  the 
best  of  mothers  with  that  spirit  of  constancy  and  strength  of 
soul,  which  the  future  that  opened  before  us  furnished  the 
opportunity  of  giving  abundant  proofs  in  a  course  of  wonder- 
ful prosperity,  as  also  in  that  long  exile  which  still  holds  us 
beneath  its  inexorable  influence,  and  of  which  she  had  not 
the  consolation  to  look  forward  to  the  termination  in  her  dy- 
ing hour.  A  brother,  worthy  of  our  mother,  the  Abbe  Fesch, 
completed  our  family. 

Although  holding  one  of  the  first  ranks  in  the  island,  in 
every  respect  our  fortune  was  not  very  brilliant.  Several 
voyages  of  my  father  to  France,  where  he  was  deputy  of  the 
noblesse  to  Louis  XVI. ,  and  the  expenses  of  our  education, 
superior  to  his  means,  notwithstanding  the  benefits  he  derived 
from  government,  had  much  impoverished  our  fortune. 

The  education  of  my  two  elder  brothers  upon  the  Conti- 
nent, mine,  and  the  deputation  of  our  father  to  Paris,  had 
rendered  us  entirely  French.  Corsica  had  been  declared, 
since  the  30lh  of  November,  1789,  an  integral  part  of  the 
monarchy ;  and  that  declaration,  which  had  satisfied  the 
wishes  of  the  islanders,  had  completely  effaced  from  their 
minds  the  bitter  remembrance  of  the  conquest.  The  philo- 
sophical ideas  and  revolutionary  agitations  which  prevailed 
upon  the  Continent,  fermented  also  in  our  heads  ;  and  no  one 
hailed  with  more  ardour  than  we  did  the  dawn  of  1789. 
Joseph  entered  into  the  administration  of  the  department. 
Napoleon  prepared  by  serious  studies  to  march  with  giant 
steps  in  his  career  of  prodigies.  And  the  third  brother,  a 
mere  boy,  ran  to  throw  himself  into  the  popular  societies, 
with  the  lively  enthusiasm  of  a  youthful  and  ardent  mind, 
filled  with  the  remembrances  of  college,  and  the  great  names 
of  Rome  and  Greece. 

1  think  it  right  to  suppress  all  details  that  are  foreign  to 
public  affairs:  of  what  avail  would  they  be?  Amid  the 
numerous  recollections  of  my  early  years,  I  notice  those  only 
which  appear  to  me  to  be  useful.  It  was,  I  believe,  in  1792, 
that  a  numerous  fleet,  commanded  by  the  brave  Admiral 
Truguet,  left  Toulon  filled  with  troops,  intended  for  an  expe- 
dition against  Sardinia.  This  fleet  cast  anclior  in  our  bt-au- 
tiful  bay.  On  the  first  news  of  their  arrival  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  AJHCcio  covered  the  shore.  The  sails  pointed  to 
the  horizon  shining  in  the  brilliant  rays  of  a  cloudless  sun. 
I  flew  with  the  swiftness  of  an  arrow,  and  joining  some 
members  of  a  club,  who,  in  the  absence  of  my  elder  brothers, 
were  delighted  to  follow  me.  1  placed  myself  at  their  head, 
crying  "  These  are  our  brothers  ! — these  are  the  tricoloured 
flags !"  We  ran  like  mad  creatures  along  the  shore,  as  if  we 
could  have  joined  the  fleet  the  sooner  by  going  farther  from 
the  port.  The  music,  the  flags,  and  the  reports  of  the  guns, 
fired  in  sign  of  joy,  contributed  to  increase  the  effect.    But 


LrcIEN    BONAPARTE.  9 

while  we  were  losing  our  breath,  the  vessels,  driven  by  a 
good  wind,  entered  the  bay ;  perceiving  too  late  that  they 
had  the  advantage  of  us,  we  retraced  our  steps.  In  conse- 
quence of  too  much  eagerness,  we  were  the  last  to  reach 
the  fleet;  but  at  the  name  of  tiie  popular  society,  a  power  at 
that  time  new  and  magical,  all  ranks  gave  way  before  us, 
and  followed  by  a  deputation  which  proclaimed  me  their 
chief,  1  went  on  board  the  admiral's  vessel. 

The  troops  of  the  expedition  were  composed  of  young 
Marseillese  conscripts,  ill  disciplined,  and  carrying  with  them 
into  the  service  the  agitation  of  the  clubs.  Those  young 
men  had  communicated  to  the  whole  of  the  crew  the  desire 
of  political  discussion,  and  in  every  ship  of  war  they  had 
established  a  popular  society.  Thus,  notwithstanding  their 
courage,  these  troops  tried  the  patience  of  the  admiral,  and 
their  msubordinaiion  c;iused  the  failure  of  the  expedition  to 
Sardinia.  No  sooner  were  we  announced,  than  the  popular 
society  of  the  admiral's  vessel  assembled  in  the  grand  hall 
of  council  for  a  public  sitting.  I  made  a  speech,  and  the 
president  gave  me  the  fraternal  embrace,  and  invited  us  to 
the  honours  of  the  sitting.  This  president  was  steward  of 
the  ship,  and  he  harangued  us  for  about  half  an  hour  in  a 
manner  that  it  was  wulh  difficulty  we  could  preserve  our 
gravity.  I  remember  that  he  began  with  a  voice  alternately 
deep  or  piercing,  and  with  the  gestures  of  a  maniac,  "  The 
more  I  see,  the  iuore  I  see  that  patriotism  gains  everywhere. 
The  more  I  see,  the  more  I  see  that  the  brave  sans  culottes 
are  irresistible.  The  more  1  see,  the  more  I  see,"  &c., 
&c,  !!  and  he  continued  thus  to  repeat  his,  "  The  more  I  see ^ 
the  more  I  see,'''  at  least  twenty  times,  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment of  his  comrades  and  the  sailors.  As  for  us,  he  re- 
called to  our  nnnds  the  comedy  of  les  Plaideurs — "  When  I 
see  the  sun,  and  when  1  see  the  moon,"  &c.,  &c.  The  offi- 
cers of  the  marines,  wiio  were  present  at  our  reception,  had 
like  us  the  merit  of  not  laughing  aloud.  We  announced  on 
our  part  a  public  sitting  for  the  next  day,  destined  to  frater- 
nise with  the  club  of  the  admirars  vessel;  and  we  departed 
amid  their  patriotic  acclamations.  Tliis  solemnity  did  not 
greatly  edify  our  islanders  ;  accustomed  to  let  our  chiefs 
speak,  and  those  who  distinguished  themst^lves  by  their 
talents,  we  remarKed  the  silence  of  the  officers,  the  confu- 
sion of  that  clamorous  multitude,  and  we  inquired  of  each 
other  if  all  the  popular  societies  upon  the  continent  were 
conducted  in  the  same  manner.  We  prepared  without  delay- 
to  show  them  our  superiority  the  next  day,  and  certainly  it 
was  not  a  very  difficult  afiair  ;  if  the  Marseillese,  previous  to 
our  sitting,  had  not  been  desirous  of  showing  us  that  their 
actions  surpassed  even  their  eloquence. 

I  was  occupied  at  my  desk  in  preparing  a  speech  that  I 
was  to  pronounce  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours,  when  I 


10  MEMOIRS    OF 

thought  I  heard  a  distant  tumult :  but  soon  it  became  more 
distinct,  and  the  noise  of  the  shutting  of  doors  every  mo- 
ment was  overpowered  by  tlje  cries  of  "  Serra,  sen  a." 
(Shut  your  doors,  shut  your  doors.)  The  tocsin  called 
everybody  to  anus.  A  troop  of  our  friends  were  running  to 
the  house  as  1  went  out  of  it.  We  marched  towards  the  prin- 
cipal place  whence  the  noise  proceeded,  'i'he  streets  were 
filled  with  armed  men.  Near  the  gate  of  the  town,  a  woman, 
with  dishevelled  hair,  was  screaming  "  The  Jacobins  are  as- 
sassinating my  husband!"  She  was  a  Corsican  married  to 
a  Frenchmnn,  who  having  filled  a  post  in  the  administra- 
tion, was  known  for  his  aristocratic  principles.  It  happened 
unfortunately  that  he  was  walking  on  the  pier  when  the  Mar- 
seillese  landed,  and  he  was  pointed  out  as  an  aristocrat. 
Instantly  cries  of  the  "  aristocrats  to  the  lantern,"  resounded 
throughout  the  multitude  that  had  landed.  But  that  cry,  to 
which  the  Marseillese  were  accustomed,  intoxicated  by  their 
demagogic  fanaticism,  that  cry  of  tigers,  far  from  finding  an 
echo  amid  the  good  citizens  of  Ajaccio,  excited  only  their 
indignation  and  their  horror;  and  they  armed  themselves  in 
crowds  to  defend  the  victim.  When  I  arrived  upon  the 
place  it  was  covered  by  the  whole  population,  thoroughly 
determined  not  to  suffer  our  walls  to  be  dishonoured  by  so 
cowardly  a  crime.  The  officers  of  the  squadron  had  recalled 
all  the  Marseillese.  Secojided  by  our  efforts,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  hurrying  them  on  board  their  vessels ;  they  ap- 
peared no  more  on  land,  and  certainly  we  had  lost  all  desire 
to  fraternise  with  them.  The  fleet  set  sail  a  few  days  after. 
This  attempt  at  political  assassination  made  a  profound 
impression  upon  my  countrymen.  In  our  popular  societies 
they  had  often  denounced  the  anti-patriotic  conversations  of 
the  agents  of  the  ancient  govennnent;  they  regretted,  with- 
out doubt,  their  lost  places  ;  but  their  yoke  had  tired  us, 
and  we  beheld  them  with  an  evil  eye;  their  long  hvibit  of 
commanding  had  not  taught  them  to  be  prudent.  But  it  had 
never  entered  into  th.e  head  of  any  islander  to  kill  a  man 
without  a  motive  of  personal  vengeance,  and  only  because 
he  had  been  powerful,  or  that  his  sentiments  differed  from 
ours.  To  put  an  end  at  once  to  all  the  embarrassment  which 
these  men  from  the  Continent  gave  us,  and  who  had  so  long 
oppressed  us,  and  who  had  not  learned  to  be  silent,  we  re- 
solved to  send  them  out  of  the  island.  A  vessel  was  pre- 
pared, and  they  made  them  embark  all  together.  "  You  were 
not  born  among  us,"  they  were  told ;  "  and  although  we  are 
become  French,  we  cannot  look  upon  those  as  our  fellow- 
citizens  who  are  the  agents  of  a  tyranny  that  has  so  long 
weighed  us  down.  We  have  saved  one  of  you — we  have 
prevented  violence  against  you  ;  but  your  presence,  and  your 
dangerous  discourses  annoy  us;  we  will  have  nothing  fur- 
ther to  do  with  you.    Go  home  to  your  own  country,  and 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  11 

leave  us  in  peace."  This  sentiment  was  unanimous,  the 
men  of  the  ancient  regime  departed.  But  in  a  short  lime  we 
regretted  their  departure.  We  learned  too  soon  that  upon 
their  arrival  on  the  Cotiiinent  they  had  been  all  sacrificed  by 
those  of  iheir  countrymen  who  tried  and  executed  them  in 
the  streets  upon  the  revolutionary  lanterns.  Certainly  not 
one  among  them  was  culpable  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
unfortunate  attempt  of  the  troops  of  the  expedition  of  the 
fleet,  those  unfortunate  beings  (to  the  number,  I  believe,  of 
eight  or  ten)  would  have  terminated  their  days  in  peace 
among  us. 

The  deplorable  end  of  these  men,  the  violence  of  the  rev- 
olutionary acts  and  writings  upon  the  Continent,  the  attacks 
that  were  still  more  violent  every  day  against  religion, 
changed,  during  the  year  1792,  the  public  opinion  in  Corsica. 
Our  ancient  chief,  the  celebrated  Pascal  Paoli,  was  re- 
turned ;  he  had  only  passed  through  Paris,  and  although 
they  paid  him  every  mark  of  respect  that  was  due  to  so 
great  a  man,  he  judged  with  severity  the  chief  who  directed 
the  revolution.  Louis  XVT.  had  inspired  him  with  a  pro- 
found interest.  Paoli  foresaw  the  future  :  he  arrived  in 
Corsica  uneasy  and  discontented.  Every  political  phasis 
increased  his  discontent.  It  was  at  that  moment  that  his  ar- 
rival at  Ajaccio  was  announced  to  us.  We  had  for  a  long 
time  offered  up  prayers  for  his  return.  The  enthusiasm 
which  his  name  alone  inspired,  gave  him  a  superior  moral 
force  over  the  government.  He  was  the  friend,  the  father, 
the  idol  of  the  towns  and  hamlets.  As  soon,  therefore,  as 
his  arrival  was  promised  at  Ajaccio,  all  business  ceased, 
nothing  was  thought  of  but  his  reception.  The  authorities, 
the  garrison,  the  popular  society,  thought  only  of  Paoli ; 
their  impatience  to  see  him  increased  every  hour. 

My  age  gave  me  access  only  to  the  popular  society.  I 
thougVit  nigtit  and  day  of  nothing  but  the  discourse  that  I 
should  pronounce  before  the  hero.  But  being  rather  diffident 
as  a  young  man  of  my  phrases,  1  had  recourse  to  our  library. 
After  having  rummaged  over  all  the  books  without  cere- 
mony, I  appropriated  several  passages  that  pleased  me  ;  and 
it  was  above  all  Bodin  and  Needham  that  I  secretly  put  under 
contribution.  I  made  choice  of  those  civilians  the  least 
known,  that  I  might  deck  myself  with  some  of  the  spoils 
without  fear  of  detection.  I  was  desirous,  also,  to  treat  of 
some  patriotic  subject  on  the  history  of  Corsica,  with  the 
view  of  leading  to  applications  favourable  to  our  illustrious 
auditor.  I  did  not  need,  upon  this  occasion,  to  have  recourse 
to  foreign  aid.  I  chose  for  my  subject  the  death  of  the  curate 
o(  Guagno,  who,  surrounded  in  the  hollow  of  a  ravine  by  the 
Genoese  troops,  from  whom  he  could  not  escape,  but  upon 
condition  of  taking  the  oath  of  obedience  to  the  tyrants  of 
his  country,  preferred  to  die  of  hunger.    Above  twenty  years 


12  MEMOIRS    OF 

afterward  I  celebrated  that  sublime  death  in  one  of  the  can- 
tos of  my  poem  of  the  Cirreide,  under  the  name  of  Rosol. 
No  ancient  republic  offers  in  its  history  a  more  heroic  mar- 
tyrdom than  that  of  the  curate  of  Guafjno.  It  exalted  my 
imagination ;  1  composed  my  speech  with  a  palpitating  heart, 
and  i  believe  it  possessed  sufficient  merit  to  make  me  regret 
its  loss. 

Thus  prepared,  I  ran  with  a  crowd  of  my  countrymen  to 
meet  Paoli.  He  had  already  received  my  two  elder  brothers 
as  the  sous  of  a  man  who  was  dear  to  him,  who  had  pos- 
sessed his  eutire  confidence,  and  who  h^id  served  with  him 
in  the  war  of  indepei:dence,  and  he  welcomed-  me  as  such; 
his  caresses  intoxicated  me;  and  1  counted  the  moments 
that  delayed  our  sitting.  It  opened  at  length;  Paoli  was 
seated  in  front  of  the  tribune  in  an  arnichair,  ornatnented 
with  laurels  and  crowns  of  oak.  I  conquered  my  momen- 
tary agitation,  and  poured  forth  my  fragments  of  Needham 
and  Bodin  with  confidence  and  warmth.  I  remember  only 
that  they  dwelt  chiefly  upon  the  .preference  that  the  people 
should  give  to  a  republican  government.  Weil  chosen  for 
the  chief  of  our  ancient  republic,  and  adroitly  joined  together, 
those  fragments  of  two  grave  civilians  might  well  cause 
wonder  and  astonishment  in  the  mouth  of  an  orator  of  seven- 
teen ;  their  effect,  therefore,  surpassed  my  hopes.  Paoli  in 
embracing  me  called  me  his  little  Tacitus.  The  members 
of  our  club,  who  took  their  part  in  my  triumph,  announced 
then  that  i  had  got  another  harangue  ready  on  the  subj'r^ct 
of  the  death  of  the  curate  of  Guagno,  and  Paoli  promised  us 
a  second  audience.  This  time  my  success  was  without 
alloy.  Our  hero  was  affected  with  the  cries  of  hatred  against 
the  Genoese  which  sprang  forth  from  my  subje^^t  and  re- 
sounded in  my  passionate  recital.  The  hatred  of  the  Gen- 
oese, that  patriotic  passion  of  his  whole  life  moved  every 
fibre  of  his  soul,  and  when,  in  my  peroration,  the  martyred 
curate  pronounced,  with  an  expiring  and  prophetic  voice, 
the  name  of  Paoli,  the  avemrer  of  liberty,  the  tears  were 
seen  to  flow  down  the  cheek  of  the  venerable  father  of  his 
country.  I  enjoyed  with  delight  those  tears.  Paoli  de- 
clared that  he  would  take  me  with  him,  and  that  I  should 
never  leave  him.  Heroic  old  man! — how  happy  was  I  to 
follow  thee  to  the  simple  residence  of  Rostino  ]  How  little 
did  I  then  think  that  my  stay  with  thee  would  have  been  of 
so  short  a  duration,  and  that  the  political  tempest  was  soon 
to  separate  us  for  ever  1 

The  village  of  Rostino  is  situated  in-  the  mountains,  and 
composed  only  of  cottages  and  some  small  houses.  Paoli 
inhabited  a  convent,  where  he  lived  with  a  noble  simplicity. 
He  had  every  day  at  his  frugal  but  well-served  table  several 
guests.  Every  day  a  numerous  crowd  of  mountaineers 
waited  for  the  moment  of  his  going  out  to  see  and  speak  to 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  13 

him ;  they  surrounded  hitn  with  filial  respect.  He  spoke  to 
all  like  a  g'ood  fatlier  ;  but  v/hat  at  first  surprised  me  ex- 
tremely, was  his  recoUectiuir  and  calling-  by  their  names  the 
chiefs  of  families  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  above  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  Those  calls,  that  remembrance,  produced  upon 
our  islanders  a  magical  effect.  The  fine  head  of  the  noble 
old  man,  ornamented  with  his  long  while  hwir,  his  majestic 
figure,  his  mild  but  penetrating  look,  his  clear  and  sonorous 
voice,  all  contributed  to  throw  an  inexpressible  charm  upon 
what  he  said.  To  imagine  a  patriarch  legislator  in  the  midst 
of  his  numerous  race,  I  do  not  think  that  either  painting  or 
poetry  could  borrow  more  noble  features  than  those  which 
I  contemj)lated  for  several  months  at  Rostino. 

Notwithstanding  my  enthusiasm,  upon  reflecting  one  day 
on  the  prodigious  memory  of  Paoli,  1  began  to  question  my- 
self how  it  was  possible  :  the  same  scene  repeated  several 
times  at  each  %valk,  and  almost  in  the  same  terms,  ended  by 
inspiring  me  with  doubts.  I  was  as  much  as  I  could  be  at 
the  side  of  my  hero — I  began  by  observing  all  the  prepara- 
tions for  these  daily  walks.  A  monk  went  always  to  the 
cabinet  of  Paoli  before  he  walked  out;  I  slyly  followed  him, 
and  I  observed  him,  for  several  successive  days,  descend  into 
the  middle  of  the  crowd  and  talk  with  the  chiefs  of  those 
who  were  waiting  for  an  audience.  1  was  upon  the  road  for 
making  a  discovery  ;  it  appeared  evident  to  me  that  the  pre- 
cursor monk  supplied  by  his  confidential  reports  the  memory 
of  the  patron.  I  must  own  that  this  discovery  displeased 
me  ;  although  I  observed  how  greatly  that  paternal  fraud 
rendered  so  many  good  old  men  happy,  the*  shadow  of  a 
deception  offended  my  young  imagination,  and  cooled  a  little 
my  enthusiasm.  I  had  been  less  scrupulous  as  to  my  first 
speech — we  are  always  more  indulgent  towards  ourselves. 

But  the  friendship  which  he  evinced  towards  me  appeared 
to  increase  every  day  ;  and  the  little  cloud  which  had  arisen 
over  our  walks  was  shortly  dissipated.  Paoli  loved  to  talk 
to  me  of  England,  of  the  true  liberty  which  reigned  in  that 
happy  country,  of  the  good  sense  of  its  inhabitants,  of  the 
admirable  equilibrium  of  its  political  powers.  "  England," 
said  he,  "  is  not  a  monarchy — it  is  a  wise,  powerful  republic  ; 
happy  would  it  be  for  France  if  she  would  take  England  for 
her  model!"  All  these  conversations  astonished  me ;  they 
were  beyond  my  comprehension ;  my  wise  interlocutor  did 
me  more  honour  than  I  deserved  ;  his  lessons  appeared 
strange  to  me,  and  soon  they  ceased  to  please  me.  I  ob- 
served under  the  Anglomania,  which  I  understood  but  very 
vaguely  at  that  time,  a  little  antipathy  towards  France.  It 
wounded  me  deeply.  Paoli  perceived  it,  and  he  adjusted  his 
lessons  to  what  he  called  my  college  prejudices.  He  made 
the  same  attempt  with  my  two  elder  brothers  that  he  had 
made  to  win  me,  but  with  more  circumspection,  as  he  was 

B 


14  MEMOIRS    OF 

very  anxious  to  gain  us  entirely.  He  had  frequent  confer- 
ences with  Joseph  and  Napoleon ;  but  he  soon  saw  the  inu- 
tility of  his  efforts.  Notwithstanding  the  horror  with  which 
the  revolutionary  excesses  inspired  us,  we  felt  assured  that 
they  w^ould  be  calmed,  and  that  the  benefits  of  the  revolution 
would  survive  its  atrocities.  We  were  Frenchmen,  and  we 
had  faith  in  the  future.  Besides  which,  our  island  had  main- 
tained itself  pure  from  the  dreadful  excesses  which  had  sul- 
lied so  many  communes  of  the  Continent. 

We  approached,  however,  the  year  of  1793.  The  senti- 
ments of  Paoli  against  France  manifested  themselves  more 
openly  every  day ;  every  day  he  became  more  discontented 
with  us,  and  less  certain  of  persuading  us  to  join  with  him 
in  the  defection  which  he  meditated.  The  catastrophe  of 
the  21st  of  January  gave  the  finishing  blow  to  his  hatred. 
He  shook  with  rage :  he  could  no  longer  contain  him- 
self. "  Behold  I"  said  he,  "  your  French  wallowing  in  inno- 
cent blood — behold  them  !  well,  will  you  still  dare  to  defend 
them  1  I  can  no  longer  bear  it.  The  sons  of  Charles  can 
never  be  capable  of  abandoning  me.  But  the  brothers  must 
decide  :  they  must  choose  between  France  and  me.  But 
there  is  no  longer  any  France.  The  monsters  have  de- 
stroyed all  who  merited  to  live  ;  they  have  murdered  their 
king,  the  best  of  men — a  saint !  a  saint !  a  saint !  (he  repeated 
with  increasing  ardour  at  every  word.)  Corsica  will  have 
no  more  to  do  with  them.  Neither  will  I.  Let  them  keep 
for  themselves  their  blood-stained  liberty :  it  was  not  made 
for  my  brave  mountaineers.  It  were  better  to  return  to  the 
Genoese.  I  expect  your  brothers — and  wo  to  him  who 
shall  pronounce  in  favour  of  that  horde  of  brigands — I  will 
not  own  one  of  them  ;  no,  not  one,  not  even  the  sons  of 
Charles !" 

I  still  behold  the  ardent  old  man :  his  countenance  spar- 
kled, his  anger  appeared  to  aggrandize  him.  His  error  was 
deplorable,  since  he  saw,  in  our  immortal  revolution,  only 
the  crimes  of  the  reign  of  terror.  It  was  in  vain  that  we 
told  him  that  the  execrable  regicide  of  Charles  the  First  had 
not  prevented  the  establishment  of  English  libeity  after  a 
time.  He  would  not  hear  us.  But  the  motive  which  misled 
him  was  as  pure  as  his  soul.  He  was  wrong  in  despairing 
of  the  fortune  of  France — of  seeing  the  salvation  of  his 
country  only  in  the  union  with  England,  which  he  esteemed 
above  all  other  nations.  He  deceived  himself  w^ith  regard 
to  the  future ;  but  he  never  ceased,  notwithstanding  his 
error,  to  be  worthy  of  himself  Those  who  have  explained 
his  conduct  as  arising  from  motives  of  vulgar  ambition,  did 
not  know  him.  Peace  !  honour  !  and  glory  to  his  ashes ! 
they  are  worthy  of  the  pantheon  of  a  great  and  free  nation  ; 
they  are  worthy  to  repose  beneath  the  roof  of  Westminster 
Abbey. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  15 

The  ancient  chief  of  our  country,  the  friend  of  our  father, 
the  man  whom  we  admired  and  loved  the  most,  was  on  one 
side — France  was  on  the  other.  We  separated  from  Paoh. 
I  quitted  Rostino,  and  I  returned  to  Ajaccio  to  keep  our  friends 
in  their  duties.  Joseph  ceased  to  have  any  influence  in  the 
departmental  administration.  Napoleon  rejoined  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people  at  Bastia.  The  opinion  of  Paoli 
influenced  the  whole  island.  On  the  26th  of  April,  1793, 
Corsica  renounced  France ;  they  formed  a  parliament,  or 
extraordinary  assembly  of  the  deputies  of  all  the  communes. 
Paoli  was  nominated  generalissimo  and  supreme  chief.  The 
recall  of  the  emigrants,  the  reintegration  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  proscription  of  the  French  emissaries  and  their  partisans 
was  decreed.  The  tricoloured  flag  was  abolished  everywhere, 
except  at  Ajaccio,  which  we  succeeded  in  keeping  within 
bounds.  Perceiving  that  the  storm  was  about  to  burst  over 
us,  the  popular  society  determined  upon  sending  a  deputation 
to  the  popular  society  at  Marseilles,  and  to  that  of  the  Jaco- 
bins at  Paris,  to  solicit  their  prompt  aid.  T  was  named  chief 
of  that  deputation,  and  we  departed  a  few  hours  afterward. 
We  well  knew  him  who  had  raised  the  standard  of  war.  We 
were  aware  we  had  not  a  moment  to  lose. 

Scarcely,  indeed,  had  we  departed,  when  the  spirit  of  insur- 
rection broke  out,  and  knew  no  longer  any  limits.  "  Vive 
Paoli !  Long  live  Paoli !  Let  Paoli  alone  govern  us :  we  will 
have  only  what  he  ordains.  Death  to  his  enemies  !"  Such 
were  the  clamours  of  the  immense  majority.  The  horn  of  the 
islanders  resounded  in  every  valley,  and  its  menacing  tones 
carried  defiance  even  to  the  ramparts  of  Ajaccio.  My  mother 
had  at  that  time  with  her  only  her  two  youngest  sons,  three 
daughters,  and  her  brother,  the  Cardinal  Fesch ;  but  it  was 
not  the  first  time  that  she  had  performed  the  part  of  both 
father  and  mother  to  her  family ;  and  she  again  displayed 
that  firm  and  courageous  spirit  which  characterized  her  early 
years,  during  the  wars  of  independence.  She  provided  for 
all,  like  an  expert  chieftain.  She  despatched  numerous  mes- 
sages to  Joseph  and  Napoleon,  both  by  sea  and  land  ;  and 
gave  notice  that  they  would  soon  arrive  in  the  port  with  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  and  succeeded  in  neutralizing 
the  partisans  of  Paoli  in  the  town. 

But  this  great  chief  had  not  forgotten,  either,  the  art  of 
making  the  most  of  time.  To  regain  us  or  to  stop  us,  he  de- 
termined to  have  the  most  precious  hostages;  and  while 
wailing  for  the  French  fleet,  my  mother  was  on  the  point  of 
falling  into  ihe  hands  of  irritated  enemies. 

Awakened  suddenly  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  she  beheld 
her  chamber  filled  with  armed  mountaineers.  She  at  first 
imagined  that  she  was  surprised  by  her  enemies;  but  by  the 
light  of  a  torch  of  fir  which  fell  upon  the  countenance  of  the 
chief,  she  felt  reassured.     It  was  Costa  of  Bastelica,  the  most 


16  MEMOIRS    OF 

devoted  of  our  partisans.  "  Quick,  make  haste,  Signora 
Letizia ;  Paoli's  men  are  close  upon  you — you  have  not  a 
moment  to  lose  :  but  here  I  am  with  all  my  men.  We  will 
save  you,  or  perish  with  you  !" 

Bastelica  is  one  of  the  most  populous  villages  in  Corsica, 
situated  at  the  foot  of  Monte  d'Oro,  in  the  middle  of  a  forest 
of  chestnuts,  the  growth  of  centuries.  It  contams  inhabitants 
renowned  for  their  courage  and  audacity,  and  for  unbounded 
fidelity  in  their  affections.  One  of  those  intrepid  hunters, 
while  traversing  the  chain  of  mountains  which  separates  the 
island  into  two  parts,  had  encountered  a  numerous  troop, 
who  were  descending  towards  Ajaccio.  He  had  learned 
that  this  troop  was  to  be  introduced  during  the  ni^ht  into  the 
town  by  the  party  of  Paoli,  in  order  to  carry  off  our  family 
prisoners  to  Rostino.  He  had  even  heard  it  affirmed,  that 
they  were  to  take  all  the  children  of  Charles  alive  or  dead. 
To  return  like  an  arrow  to  his  village,  and  inform  the  chief 
of  our  partisans  to  arm  all  who  had  a  gun  or  a  poniard,  and 
traverse,  with  hasty  strides,  the  forest  of  Bastelica — was 
but  the  affair  of  a  moment.  After  several  hours  of  a  forced 
march,  our  brave  friends  entered  the  town  during  the  night, 
about  ihree  hundred  in  number,  and  had  only  preceded  our 
enemies  by  a  few  miles. 

My  motiier  and  her  children  arose  in  haste,  having  only 
time  to  take  their  clothes  with  them  ;  and  placed  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  column,  they  left  the  town  in  silence — the  inhab- 
itants being  still  plunged  in  sleep.  They  entered  into  the 
deepest  recesses  of  the  mountains,  and  at  breaTc  of  day  they 
halted  in  a  forest,  from  whence  they  could  discover  a  part  of 
the  shore.  Several  times  the  fugitives  heard  from  their  en- 
campment the  troops  of  the  enemy  traverse  the  neighbour- 
ing valleys ;  but  Providence  deigned  to  spare  them  from  an 
encounter  that  must  have  been  fatal.  On  the  same  day  the 
flames,  arising  in  thick  columns  from  the  middle  of  the 
town,  attracted  the  eyes  of  our  friends.  "  That  is  your  house 
which  is^iurning-,''^  said  one  of  them  to  ray  mother.  "  Ah  ! 
never  mind  !"  she  replied,  "  ive  will  build  it  up  again  much  better 
— vive  la  France  V^  After  two  nights  of  a  march  skilfully 
directed,  they  at  length  perceived  the  sails  of  the  French 
frigate.  My  mother  took  leave  of  her  brave  dt^fenders,  and 
rejoined  her  eldest  sons  on  board  the  frigate  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  The  rage  of  our  enemies  was 
thus  i>3duced  to  expend  itself  upon  the  stones  of  our  house. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  17 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR. 


"  Beneath  the  despotism  of  one  only  or  of  several, 
We  risk  becoming  the  victim.     Beneath  democratic 
Despotism,  besides  the  same  danger  multiplied  a 
Hundred  fold,  we  run  another  still  more  horrible — 
That  of  becoming  executioners  !" 


Popular  Society  of  Marseilles — The  Cannebriere— Arrival  of  my  Family — 
Saint  Maximin — The  Dictatorship  of  a  little  Town— The  Suspected — 
The  Carts  with  the  Victims — Robespierre  and  his  Brother — It  is  not  yet 
time  ! 

I  HAD  departed  with  the  deputation  from  Ajaccio,  and  a 
favourable  wind  wafted  us  to  France  in  twenty-four  hours. 
I  had  left  it  about  four  j^ears  without  having  finished  my 
studies  at  the  seminary  of  Aix  ;  and  I  was  now  about  to  re- 
appear in  it,  charged  with  a  political  mission.  My  vanity 
was  exalted  to  so  high  a  pitch,  that  I  fancied  myself  a  per- 
sonage of  sufficient  importance,  who  could  not  fail  to  attract 
the  notice  of  the  crowd  which  covered  the  port  of  Marseilles, 
where  we  landed  in  the  evening.  We  scarcely  allowed  our- 
selves a  moment  of  repose,  so  great  was  our  anxiety  to  arrive 
at  the  popular  society.  In  a  vast  saloon,  which  admitted 
very  little  light,  were  seated  the  members  of  the  society,  all 
of  them  with  red  caps  on  their  heads.  The  galleries  were 
filled  with  noisy  women.  As  soon  as  the  president  had  an- 
nounced that  a  deputation  of  patriots  from  Corsica  were  the 
bearers  of  important  news,  a  hearing  was  allowed  us,  and  I 
was  called  to  the  tribune  before  I  had  thought  of  what  I  was 
to  say.  I  began  by  declaring  that  the  nation  was  betrayed 
in  Corsica,  and  that  we  were  come  to  invoke  the  aid  of  our 
brothers.  As  I  was  ignorant  at  that  moment  of  the  flight  of 
my  family,  I  did  not  feel  any  personal  hatred  against  Paoli. 
I  wished  to  keep  fair  with  him;  but  the  acclamations  from 
the  galleries  augmented  in  proportion  to  the  violence  of  my 
words,  and  for  the  first  time  I  experienced  how  much  the 
passions  of  those  who  listen  have  power  over  those  who 
speak.  Carried  away  by  the  cries  and  the  applauses  from 
the  galleries,  I  soon  began  to  talk  in  a  manner  calculated  to 
increase  their  excitement.     It  was  not  only  a  speedy  succour 

B3 


18  MExMOIRS    OF 

that  I  demanded,  but  I  painted  Paoli  as  having  abused 
the  national  confidence,  and  who  had  only  returned  into 
his  island  that  he  might  deliver  it  up  to  the  English. 
They,  above  all,  were  not  spared  in  my  figures  of  rhetoric. 
It  was  the  chord  most  likely  to  touch  the  feelings  of  my 
auditors,  and  I  made  it  my  lavourite  theme.  I  was  over- 
powered with  embraces  and  compliments  :  they  would  not 
let  me  quit  the  tribune  ;  and  I  chattered  away  for  about  two 
hours  at  random.  Motion  upon  motion  followed  one  after 
the  other.  An  order  for  printing  my  speech  ;  a  message  to 
the  administrators  of  the  departments  to  send  troops  to  the 
aid  of  Ajaccio  ;  a  deputation  of  three  members  to  accompany 
us  to  the  Jacobins  of  Paris,  to  denounce  the  treason  of  Paoli 
and  demand  vengeance — all  these  measures  were  adopted 
with  urgency  and  unanimity.  My  colleagues  not  having 
funds  sufficient  for  the  journey  to  Paris,  1  determined  upon 
accompanying  the  deputies  of  Marseilles  alone,  and  we  left 
the  assembly  together  at  midnight. 

Solitude  and  repose  having  cahned  my  mind,  the  image  of 
that  Paoli,  who  for  so  long  a  time  had  been  the  object  of  my 
worship,  began  to  trouble  my  inmost  soul  in  a  manner  that 
very  much  resembled  remorse.  I  recalled  to  mind  our  con- 
versations at  Rostino.  I  had  been  uttering  without  premed- 
itation sentiments  in  direct  opposition  to  those  which,  for 
several  months,  I  had  heard  proceed  from  lips  which  I 
revered.  Furious  cries  against  Paoli  had  replied  to  my  im- 
passioned eloquence.  They  had  associated  with  me,  to  ac- 
company me  to  Paris,  a  set  of  men  whose  repulsive  aspect, 
savage  language,  the  ton  of  the  Holies  in  their  manners,  had 
disagreeably  surprised  me.  After  an  agitated  sleep,  I  awoke 
discontented  and  undecided.  The  I^Iarseilles  deputies  came 
to  fetch  me  to  breakfast  with  them  at  the  cafe :  I  followed 
them.  They  conducted  me  to  tlie  Cannebriere,  the  principal 
street  of  Marseilles.  I  admired  that  long  place  surrounded 
with  superb  edifices  :  an  immense  crowd  of  men,  women, 
and  children  were  walking,  and  pushing  against  each  other 
to  get  on.  I  inquired  of  one  of  the  brothers  and  friends*  if 
it  was  a  day  of  festival.  "  Oh  no  !"  he  replied,  with  great 
tranquillity,  "  it  is  only  about  twenty  aristocrats  who  are 
making  a  tumble :  don't  you  see  them  V  I  looked  in  the 
direction  to  which  he  pointed — and  I  beheld  the  guillotine, 
red  with  blood,  at  work.  It  was  the  richest  merchants 
whom  they  had,  for  above  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  been  mur- 
dering !  and  that  crowd,  whom  their  bounty  had  so  often 
fed,  were  then  walking  in  the  street  of  the  Cannebriere  to 
enjoy  the  spectacle!  and  the  shops  were  full  of  customers 
as  usual,  and  the  cafes  were  open !  and  the  cakes  and  gin- 
gerbread were  circulating  around  as  upon  the  day  of  a  fair  ! ! ! 

*  Name  which  the  Jacobins  gave  themselves. — Note  of  the  Translator 


. LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  19 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  first  time  I  walked  in  the  streets  of 
Marseilles. 

I  left  the  coffee  house  upon  I  know  not  what  pretext,  as 
soon  as  possible,  and  1  declared  the  next  day  that  I  would 
not  go  to  Paris  ;  that  the  deputies  of  the  Marseilles  Club  did 
not  want  me  to  accompany  them  to  fulfil  their  mission,  and 
that  I  should  await  the  promised  succours  to  return  to  Cor- 
sica with  my  companions. 

A  few  days  afterward  my  fugitive  family  arrived  in  the 
port  of  Marseilles,  deprived  of  every  resource,  but  full  of 
courage  and  in  good  health.  Joseph,  Napoleon,  and  myself, 
struggled  against  our  ill  fortune.  Napoleon,  an  oflicer  of 
artillery,  devoted  the  chief  part  of  his  income  towards  the 
support  of  liis  family.  Joseph  was  appointed  commissary 
of  war,  and  1  was  placed  in  the  administration  of  the  military 
subsistences.  Under  the  title  of  refugee  patriots,  we  ob- 
tained rations  of  ammunition,  bread,  and  those  moderate  suc- 
cours safficred  to  maintain  us,  aided  above  all  by  the  good 
management  and  economy  of  our  excellent  mother.  The 
recital  of  the  dangers  that  she  had  met,  the  burning  of  our 
property,  and  the  order  to  take  us  dead  or  alive,  that  had 
been  given  by  Paoli,  would  soon  have  vanquished  all  further 
scruples  on  my  part ;  and  I  should  have  gone  to  Paris  very 
willingly,  if  the  Marseilles  deputation  had  not  already  set 
out.  At  the  same  time,  my  employment  required  my  pres- 
ence  at  St.  Maximin,  a  small  town  a  few  leagues  distant 
from  Marseilles  :  and  I  went  there  to  succeed  the  keeper  of 
the  military  stores,  who  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  in- 
spector. 

The  republic  had  been  but  a  few  months  in  existence  ;  and 
its  arms  victorious  over  foreigners,  plunged  deeper  every 
day  into  its  own  vitals.  Already  the  populace  were  be- 
come too  much  accustomed  to  the  scaffold.  Wo  to  those 
who  stop !  had  said  the  savage  CoUot  d'Herbois.  The 
orators  of  the  Gironde,  grown  wise  too  late,  and  desirous  of 
enjoying  their  victory,  had  wished  to  stop,  when  the  31st  of 
May  arrived  to  overthrow  them.  The  departments  that  had 
embraced  their  defence  had  laid  down  their  arms,  Danton 
and  Robespierre  had  pushed  the  republic  beyond  all  limits. 
To  mark  with  one  word  that  melancholy  epoch,  the  title  of 
moderate  was  a  sentence  of  death.  The  constitution,  purely 
democratic  of  1793,  was  little  worthy  of  its  author,  the  phi- 
losopher Condorcet.  Although  accepted  by  the  primary  as- 
semblies, it  was  about  to  be  suspended  as  impracticable 
and  the  dictatorship  of  the  convention  was  sustained  by  the 
levy  671  masse,  by  the  laws  against  the  suspected,  by  the 
forced  loan  and  the  maximum,  but  above  all  by  the  irresisti- 
ble valour  of  our  armies,  who  had  thrown  down  all  obstacles 
before  them.  The  convention  marched  victorious  up  to 
their  knees  in  blood !    Lyons  and  La  Yendee  alone  dared  to 


20  MEMOIRS    OF 

resist  that  terrible  dictature.  Every  commune  in  France, 
from  the  largest  to  the  smallest,  had  a  club  and  a  revolution- 
ary committee  which  absorbed  all  the  power  when  the  com- 
missaries of  the  convention  were  absent.  Such  was  the 
crisis  which  agitated  all  the  fibres  of  society  when  I  found 
myself  launched,  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  in  the  middle  of 
Provence,  separated  from  my  family,  far  from  all  my  be- 
loved countrymen,  alone — a  stranger  without  acquaintance 
in  a  town  divided  into  parties  furiously  exasperated  against 
each  other. 

I  arrived  at  St.  Maximin  about  the  end  of  August  in  that 
year,  at  the  moment  when  the  revolutionary  army  of  Gen- 
eral Carteaux  came  to  Marseilles  to  repress  the  spirit  of  re- 
bellion excited  by  the  example  of  Lyons,  which  obstinately 
resisted  the  forces  of  the  convention.  Some  days  after, 
Toulon  surrendered  to  the  combined  fleets  of  England  and 
Spain,  thinking  to  submit  to  the  Bourbons,  which  it  was 
certainly  very  pardonable  to  prefer  to  the  reign  of  terror: 
but  the  hatred  of  treason,  and  the  horror  of  a  foreign  yoke, 
raised  to  the  highest  pitch  the  universal  indignation  of  the 
people.  As  for  myself,  I  beheld  in  the  invaders  of  Toulon 
those  same  English  whom  Paoli  had  called,  after  having 
separated  our  island  from  France,  and  for  whom  we  had 
been  driven  from  our  home.  The  tribune  of  St.  Maximin 
soon,  therefore,  resounded  with  the  speeches  of  the  young 
Corsican  refugee  ;  and  the  popular  favour  carried  me  rapid- 
ly from  the  armchair  of  the  society,  to  the  presidency  of 
the  revolutionary  committee.  In  a  few  days  I  had  acquired 
a  little  dictature,  and  although  this  success  was  quite  un- 
looked  for,  I  was  not  the  less  proud  of  having  obtained  it.  To 
strengthen  my  influence,  I  passed  all  my  evenings  at  the  Pa- 
triotic Club — where  the  whole  town  came  to  hear  me.  The 
few  persons  who  were  well  educated  were  shut  up  as  sus- 
pected :  it  was  not  then  very  susprising  that  I  should  have 
the  advantage  over  all  my  rivals  of  the  tribune.  There  was 
not,  therefore,  any  applause  but  for  me.  The  women,  rich 
and  poor,  came  regularly  to  the  sittings,  bringing  with 
them  their  work,  and  all  worked  that  they  might  not  be  ac- 
cused of  aristocrac)'-,  and  joined  in  chorus  with  the  men  in 
applauding  me,  and  in  singing  the  patriotic  hymns. 

So  great  and  easy  a  success  might  have  turned  my  head, 
if  I  had  been  ill  inclined  or  weak  ;  for  what  evil  might  I  not 
have  done,  or  have  suffered  to  have  been  done  ?  Who  would 
have  thought  in  that  little  demagogical  Babylon,  of  daring  to 
repress  a  harebrained  youth,  whose  inflammatory  speeches 
in  the  evening  at  the  club,  and  the  signature  in  the  day  at 
the  committee,  could  have  thrown  terror  and  death  into  the 
bosom  of  a  thousand  families  1  A  convent  was  filled  with 
the  suspected.  It  depended  upon  us  to  make  the  arbitrary 
choice  in  these  mournful  asylums  of  innocence,  and  to  ex- 


LUCIEN    BONAPAR'^E.  21 

pedite  them  to  Orange!  The  revolutionary  tribunal  of  Or- 
ange was  the  worthy  tribunal  of  aid  to  Fouquier  Tinville ! 
Poor  France  ! 

How  many  times  I  have  thanked  Providence  for  not  hav- 
ing abandoned  me  to  the  intoxication  of  so  extraordinary  a 
position,  so  dangerous  at  my  age,  and  for  having  surrounded 
me  with  plain  and  simple  persons  ready  to  assist  me  in  the 
good  intentions  with   which  I  had   inspired  them,  as  they 
would  have  been  equally  ready  to  have  aided  me,  had  I  been 
inclined  to  commit  excesses  ;  for  in  those  moments  of  demo- 
cratical  despotism,  (the  worst  of  all  despotisms,)  the  power 
of  an  orator,  as  long   as  he  commands  popular    favour,  is 
stronger  than  public  conscience.     I  have  often  looked  back 
upon  niyself,  and  I  have  felt  that  my  good  sentiments  were 
powerfully  seconded  by  favourable  circumstances.     I  was  a 
refugee   patriot,  and  a  martyr  to   the  revolutionary  cause  ; 
these  titles  placed  me  beyond  the  reach  of  being  suspected 
of  aristocracy  and  of  moderation.     I  could  to  a  certain  point 
brave  the  most  prevailing  prejudices,  and  follow  the  right 
road ;  but  if,  like  many  others,  instead  of  these  fortunate 
antecedent  circumstances,  I  had  been  placed  between  my 
personal  security  and   my  conscience — if  the  terrible,  the 
inexorable   {en  avantl  en  av ant  I)  forward!  forward!  of  the 
menacing  democracy,  had  resounded  without  ceasing  behind 
me — if,  like  so  many  others,  I  had  been  reduced  to  the  in- 
fernal alternative  of  kill  or  diet — can  I  be  quite  certain  of 
what  might  have  befallen  me "?     I  flatter  myself  that  1  should 
have  remained  Hiithful  to  the  Sfood  side,  vmd  that  my  moral 
courage   would    not   have    deserted   me.     Yet   how    many 
Frenchmen,  who  were  as  good,  or  perhaps  better  than  me — 
have  they  not  slipped  upon  the  edge  of  the  precipice  ]     How 
many  of  those  unfortunate  beings,  born  of  parents  equally 
virtuous  as  mv  own,  and  gifted  like  me  with  a  good  educa- 
tion—have they  not  fallen  ?     Yes,  it  is  by  far  the  worst  of  all 
social  states,  where  an  honest  man  is  exposed  to  become 
criminal;  where  the  fate  of  every  one  is  at  the  mercy  of  all ; 
where  we  are  never  certain  of  what  we  may  say,  what  we 
may  do,  or  v^^hat  will  become  of  us  on  the  morrow.     Young 
n^en  I— read  the  history  of  1793,  not  in  the  pleadings  of  those 
rhetorif^ians  who  call  themselves  historians,  but  in  the  pages 
of  the  in'^xorable  Moniteur  ;  read  with  patience,  and  you,  like 
your  fathers,  will  hold  the  government  of  the  multitude  in 
detestation.     Beneath  the  despotism  of  one  alone,  or  of  sev- 
eral, we  risk  becoming  the  victims— beneath  the  democratic 
despotism,   besides  the  same  danger  multiplied  a  hundred 
fold,  we  run  another  still   more  horrible — that  of  becoming 
executioners  I 

If  we  seek  justly  to  appreciate  that  great  tempest  of  1793, 
two  sentiments  will  simultaneously  arise  from  that  serious 
examination :  indulgence  and  pity  for  the  individuals  who 


S2  MEMOIRS    OP 

were  influenced  by  being  so  cruelly  circumstanced — but 
also  hatred,  strong,  durable,  and  profound,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  multitude. 

But  we  will  return  to  St.  Maximin.  About  twenty,  at 
least,  of  the  inhabitants  were  confined  as  suspected  persons. 
I  found  them  commodiously  lodged  and  tolerably  well  treat- 
ed. My  revolutionary  committee  was  camposed  of  artisans 
and  work  people,  and  an  ancient  monk,  the  only  one  of 
them  who  could  write,  and  who,  before  my  arrival,  was  at 
their  head.     I  was  fortunate  enough  to  inspire  this  ex-monk 

"«  with  a  species  of  enthusiasm  for  me.  He  had  nothing  par- 
ticularly amiable  in  his  character,  but  he  was  not  mischiev- 
ous ;  he  followed  me  everywhere,  and  resigned  to  me  the 
pre-eminence  with  all  his  heart,  and  was  as  useful  to  me  as 
he  might  have  been  prejudicial.  I  placed  him,  therefore,  in 
my  administration,  and  gained  him  entirely.  The  situation 
of  the  suspected  was  ameliorated,  and  some  of  them  were  let 
out  to  act  in  patriotic  pieces  in  a  private  theatre  ;  and,  above 
all,  the  committee  came  to  the  resolution  not  to  send  any 
of  them  to  the  butchery  of  Orange.  One  lady,  very  amia- 
ble and  of  good  birth,  was  more  compromised  than  any  of 
the  others  ;  she  was  the  sister  of  the  author  of  the  "  Travels 
of  Antenor."  I  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  pursuadmg 
her  to  represent  republican  pieces ;  but  I  would  not  give  up 
so  good  an  actress,  and  1  almost  forced  her  to  perform  the 
part  of  Junie  with  us  in  the  Brutus  of  Voltaire.  This  little 
act  of  dictatorship,  however,  was  the  means  of  giving  liber- 
ty to  my  victim.  We  thus  passed  the  least  terribly  that  we 
could,  that  most  dreadful  year.  We  were  small  in  acts,  but 
in  requital  we  were  not  sparing  of  words  and  addresses  to 
the  Jacobins  of  Paris.  As  it  was  the  fashion  to  take  an- 
tique names,  our  ex-monk  took,  I  believe,  the  name  of  Epam- 
inondas,  and  I  that  of  Brutus.  All  the  other  members  of 
^_^     the  committee  followed  our  example,  and  in  our  sittings  we 

,'i\    ■    could  have  made  a  vocabulary  of  Greek  and  Roman  names. 

'Vi^  They  have  in  a  pamphlet  attributed  to  Napoleon  this  bor- 
rowed name  of  Brutus,  but  it  belonged  only  to  me.  Napo- 
leon thought  to  elevate  his  own  name  above  all  those  of  an- 
cient history  ;  and  if  he  had  been  desirous  of  figuring  in 
those  masquerades,  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  made 
choice  of  the  name  of  Brutus. 

The  good  inhabitants  of  St.  iMaximin  let  me  do  as  I  pleased ; 
they  were  as  well  satisfied  with  our  theatrical  representa- 
tions, as  with  the  declamations  from  the  tribune.  The  wo- 
men were  delighted  that  there  had  never  been  a  single  vic- 
tim in  our  little  town,  and  that  we  performed  comedies.  I 
believe,  indeed,  that  at  that  period  there  were  very  few  com- 
munes of  whom  they  could  say  so  much  good. 

But  a  storm  from  the  higher  regions  was  about  to  burst 
over  our  heads.    Barras  and  Freron  were  at  Marseilles  1 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  ^23 

Some  months  which  had  elapsed,  after  my  arrival  at  St. 
Maximin,  had  been  filled  with  the  successes  and  crimes  of 
the  Jacobins.  In  September,  Lyons  had  fallen.  Collot 
d'Herbois  and  Fouche  of  Nantes  had  there  courageously 
destroyed  with  grape  shot  the  vanquished  population,  and 
pulled  down  with  French  hands  the  finest  edifices  of  the 
second  town  of  France,  which  forty  years  afterward  was 
doomed  to  be  again  delivered  up  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 
The  army  of  General  Carleaux,  with  whom  was  Napoleon, 
was  besieging  Toulon.  The  proscriptions  of  the  suspected, 
organized  more  widely  by  the  law  of  Merlin  de  Douia,  ex- 
tended over  three  hundred  thousand  citizens,  and  consigned 
them  without  mercy  to  the  dictatorship  of  each  of  the  com- 
munes. 

In  October,  Marie  Antoinette  was  dragged  to  a  scaflTold  in 
a  tumbril,  with  her  hands  tied,  in  the  midst  of  six  hundred 
thousand  Parisians,  stupified  and  trembling  before  a  handful 
of  brigands. 

In  November,  the  assassins  deified  themselves  with  their 
mock  worship  of  Reason ;  for  that  Reason  which  they  en- 
deavoured to  substitute  for  the  Gospel  was  but  an  idol  bathed 
in  human  blood,  which  presided  over  their  frantic  orgies : 
the  heads  of  the  Girondines,  of  Bailli  and  Lavoisier,  those 
worthy  interpreters  of  true  reason,  were  the  first  sacrifices 
of  the  new  worship.  Powerful  members  of  the  convention 
traversed  the  departments  to  prevent  the  rage  of  the  popu- 
lace from  cooling.  Barras  and  Freron  were  at  Marseilles  ! 
Our  litle  commune  vainly  hoped  to  escape  from  their  lynx 
eyes.  Some  miserable  denunciator  had  informed  them  that 
St.  Maximin  had  not  furnished  the  smallest  repast  for  the 
guillotine,  and  that  in  the  house  of  our  suspected,  open  to 
the  families  of  the  prisoners,  they  were  sufficiently  calm  to 
make  a  practice  of  amusing  themselves  with  the  charms  of 
music.  They  immediately  took  the  resolution  of  destroying 
such  a  scandal,  and  two  families  of  the  inquisition  were  charged 
to  put  us  in  the  right  road. 

I  was  walking  one  day  with  the  ex-monk  Eparainondas, 
when  an  old  woman,  whose  son  was  among  the  suspected, 
ran  towards  us.  "In  the  name  of  Heaven,"  she  cried, 
"  citizen  president,  come  and  defend  us :  they  are  carrying 
off  our  children  to  Orange.  Remember  what  you  promised 
us."  "  To  Orange  !"  I  exclaimed ;  "  and  without  an  order 
from  the  committee  !  Let  the  tocsin  be  instantly  sounded." 
We  returned  to  the  town  as  fast  as  possible,  and  we  en- 
countered on  our  road  numerous  persons  dispersed  in  the 
fields  in  search  of  me.  The  whole  town  was  in  an  uproar. 
I  renewed  the  order  to  sound  the  tocsin,  which  was  instantly 
obeyed.  I  then  convoked  the  popular  society  and  the  com- 
mittee upon  the  place  which  was  close  to  the  house  where 
the  prisoners  were  confined,  and  I  ran  thither  accompanied 


24  MEMOIRS    OF 

by  about  a  hundred  persons.     The  prison  was  surrounded 
by  an  amazed  crowd,  who  prevented  us  from  seeing  the  door 
of  entrance.     They  made  way  for  us.      Five  or  six   carts 
were  there  ah*eady  filled  with  part  of  our  prisoners  chained 
together.     A  man,  girt  with  a  tricoloured  scarf  and  a  hat  and 
feathers,   presided  over  the  ceremony,  surrounded  by  some 
gend'armes  and  accompanied  by  a  secretary,  beplumed  like 
himself,  who  was  writing  in  his  portfolio  the  names  of  the 
victims.     The  chief  of  the  band  was  one  of  the  familiars 
of  Barras.     1   sprang  before  him.     "  In   the  name  of  the 
law,"  I  cried,  "  retire  from  hence.     The  revolutionary  com- 
mittee have  not  ordered  any  delivery  of  the  prisoners.     The 
popular  society  is  about  to  assemble  ;  come  there  and  pre- 
sent your  authority,  and  in  the  mean  time  let  the  suspected 
be  replaced  whence  they  were  taken.     Gend'armes,  release 
the  suspected."     The  familiar,  surprised  at  my  audacity,  at- 
tempted at  first  to  frighten  me  with  the  names  of  those  who 
sent  him  ;  he  called  me  a  ci-devant  and  a  moderate,  and  en- 
deavoured to  continue  his  work.     The  gend'armes,  who  had 
already  in  the  same  way  cleared  out  several  prisons,  ac- 
knowledged only  the  mission  of  their  chief;  and  the  names 
of  the  club  and  committee,  so  powerful  to  kill  and  destro)', 
were  too  feeble  to  save.     Fortunately,  the  tocsin  had  raised 
all  the  population  ;  the  relatives  of  the  victims  had  regained 
courage  at  my  words.     Several  were  armed.     I  profited  by 
my  advantage,  and  ordered  the  crowds  to  release  the  cap- 
tives, and  the  delegates  to  follow  me  to  the  committee.     In 
a  few  moments  the  suspected  were  in  their  chambers,  and 
the  doors  of  the  house,  well  closed,  were  guarded  by  a  nu- 
merous troop   who  acknowledged  only  my  orders.     Thirty 
victims  were  thus  saved  ;  and,  thank  God,  1  cared  bat  little 
for  the  danger,  to  which  1  had  exposed  myself  with  all  my 
heart. 

The  delegate  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  was  hut 
a  miscreant,  whom  1  afterward  heard  had  been  one  of  the 
servants  of  Barras.  He  sought  after  these  mi:<sions  to 
provide  for  the  guillotine;  but  he  was  not  in  order  with  his 
papers,  and  fortunately  for  us  he  was  frightened.  In  the 
presence  of  the  united  committee,  I  demanded  his  pnpers  ,' 
he  stammered  and  hesitated.  Whether  he  had  not  got  them, 
or  whether  he  was  afraid  of  compromising  his  master,  whom 
we  had,  in  our  turn,  threatened  to  denounce  at  Paris,  he 
became  pacified  by  degrees,  and  told  us  he  had  been  de- 
ceived; that  he  only  actc.i  from  motives  of  pure  patriotism, 
and  according  to  the  orders  of  the  members  of  the  conven- 
tion; that  he  had  not  got  his  papers  about  him,  but  that  he 
depended  upon  us,  and  that  he  had  nothing  further  to  say, 
since  the  revolutionary  committee  was  presided  over  by  a 
Corsican  patriot ;  and  the  popular  society  had  all  agreed 
not  to  expedite  any  of  the  suspected  to  Orange.    We  received 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  25 

all  his  compliinents  without  confiding-  too  much  in  them, 
when  all  of  a  sudden  he  decided  upon  going  away.  He 
would  not  even  do  us  the  honour  to  sleep  at  St.  Maximin, 
and  he  disappeared  with  his  alguazils.  Among  the  suspected 
whom  I  had  saved,  were  several  members  of  the  Rey 
family,  one  of  the  most  respectable  in  the  town — but  it  will 
be  seen  hereafter  the  recompense  I  received  for  my  kindness 
from  a  young  man  belonging  to  that  family  ;  but  his  conduct 
towards  me  did  not  prevent  me  from  considering  that  day  to 
be  one  of  the  happiest  in  my  life. 

The  end  of  that  demagogical  year  was  marked  by  the 
taking  of  Toulon.  It  was  in  1793  that  the  genius  of 
Napoleon  was  revealed  to  the  French  nation ! ! !  But  the 
tempest  was  destined  to  continue  a  length  of  time  before  the 
transient  meteor  of  the  social  organization  could  arise  upon 
the  horizon  triumphant  over  every  storm.  The  first  months 
of  1793  beheld,  on  the  contrary,  the  Jacobins  redouble  their 
atrocities,  and  Robespierre,  the  most  cruel  hypocrite  and  the 
greatest  coward  of  them  all,  obtained  an  unlimited  power. 
Some  ardent  imaginations  have  not  hesitated  to  celebrate 
the  praises  of  that  man,  and  of  his  accomplices,  Couthon 
and  St.  Just.  They  have  not  even  feared  to  insinuate  that 
Robespierre  was  a  patriotic  victim  immolated  by  envious 
conspirators  more  guilty  than  himself.  They  have  main- 
tained that  he  fell  because  he  did  not  wish  to  proceed  in  the 
path  of  crime.  These  assertions  are  contradicted  by  facts. 
The  revolutionary  tribunal  was  never  more  active  than 
during  the  last  months  of  the  power  of  that  merciless 
tribunal.  It  was  then  that  were  struck,  with  precipitated 
blows,  all  those  whom  birth,  fortune,  or  talents  distinguished 
from  the  crowd.  In  the  month  of  April,  Malesherbes,  the 
most  virtuous  of  men,  was  dragged  to  the  scaffold,  at  seventy- 
two  years  of  age,  in  the  same  cart  with  his  sister,  his  son- 
in-law,  his  daughter,  his  granddaughter,  and  the  husband  of 
that  young-  woman  !  Even  the  judges  of  Fouquier  Tinville 
turned  away  their  eyes  at  the  aspect  of  the  venerable  old 
man.  Robespierre,  far  from  stopping,  caused  Lavoisier  to  be 
condemned  (in  May)  a  few  days  after  Malesherbes;  and  that 
he  might  have  nothing  to  envy  the  most  savage  tyrants,  he 
dared  to  sacrifice  the  honour  of  her  sex,  the  angel  who  bore 
upon  earth  the  name  of  Elizabeth!  Robespierre  was  then  at 
the  height  of  his  power.  Because  he  afterward  decimated 
his  accomplices,  and  because  he  struck  at  Danton  and  his 
partisans,  v/as  he,  for  thdt  reason,  to  be  considered  more 
excusable  1  Blood  cannot  wash  away  blood  ;  and  as  for  his 
testival  of  the  Supreme  Being,  what  else  was  it  but  cor- 
tempt  for  the  religion  of  all  Fren^'limen  and  a  denial  of  the 
Grospel  1  Blood  wao  not  sufficient  for  the  incorruptible ! 
He  desired  even  to  thrust  his  sacrilegious  hands  into  the 
dsepest  recesses  of  our  consciences.     No ;  so  many  crimes 

C 


\ 


26  MEMOIRS  'OF 

can  never  be  comprised  in  the  philosophical  sentiment  of 
indulgence.  We  should  strike  them,  each  and  every  one  of 
us,  with  an  exceptless  anathema,  especially  when  these 
horrible  names  have  lately  resounded  as  a  rallying  signal  in 
the  ears  of  France  and  dismayed  Europe. 

The  brother  of  Robespierre,  after  the  capture  of  Toulon, 
had  been  sent  as  commissary  to  the  army  of  the  Alps. 
Napoleon  was  considered  as  the  hero  of  that  memorable 
siege,  and  was  appointed  general  of  brigade ;  he  was  at 
Nice,  were  he  commanded  the  artillery.  His  connection 
with  the  army  had  brought  about  an  intimacy  with  the 
young  Robespierre,  who  appreciated  him.  It  appears  that 
the  ruler  of  the  convention  had  been  informed  of  the  un- 
common talents  of  the  conqueror  of  Toulon,  and  that  he 
was  desirous  of  replacing  the  commandant  of  Paris,  Henriot, 
whose  incapacity  began  to  weary  him.  Here  is  a  fact 
which  1  witnessed. 

My  family  owed  to  the  promotion  of  Napoleon  a  more 
prosperous  situation.  To  be  nearer  to  him,  they  had  estab- 
lished themselves  at  the  Chateau  Salle,  near  Antibes,  a  few 
miles  distant  only  from  the  head  quarters  of  the  general. 
I  had  left  St.  Maximin  to  pass  a  few  days  with  my  family 
and  my  brother.  We  assembled  together;  and  the  general 
gave  us  every  moment  that  was  at  his  own  disposal.  He 
arrived  one  day  more  preoccupied  than  usual,  and  while 
walking  between  Joseph  and  myself,  he  announced  to  us 
that  it  depended  upon  himself  to  set  out  for  Paris  the  next 
day,  and  to  be  in  a  position  by  which  he  could  establish  us 
all  advantageously.  For  my  part,  the  news  enchanted 
me :  to  go  to  the  great  capital  appeared  to  be  the  height 
of  felicity  that  nothing  could  outweigh. 

"  They  oifer  me,"  said  Napoleon,  "  the  place  of  Henriot. 
I  am  to  give  my  answer  this  evening.  Well,  what  say  you 
to  it?"  We  hesitated  a  moment.  "Eh!  eh!"  rejoined 
the  general;  "but  it  is  worth  the  trouble  of  conoidering. 
It  is  not  a  case  to  be  the  eiithusiast  upon  ;  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  save  one's  head  at  Paris  as  at  St.  Maximin.  The  yourg 
Robespierre  is  an  honest  fellow ;  but  his  brother  is  not  to 
be  trif'ed  with.  He  will  be  obeyed.  Can  I  support  that 
man?  No,  never!  I  know  how  useful  T  should  be  to  him 
in  replacing  his  simpleton  of  a  commandant  of  Paris ;  hut  it 
is  what  I  will  not  be.  It  is  not  yet  time  ;  there  is  no  place 
honourable  for  me  at  present  but  ihe  army :  we  must  havt> 
patience,  I  shall  command  Paris  hereafter.^''  Such  were  the 
words  of  Napoleon,  He  then  expressed  to  us  his  indigna- 
tion against  the  reign  of  terror,  of  which  he  announced  the 
approaching  downfall.  He  finished  by  repeating  several 
times,  half  gloomy,  half  smihng,  "  What  should  I  do  in  that 
galley]"  The  young  Robespierre  solicited  him  in  vain. 
A  few  weeks  after,  the  9th  Thermidor  arrived  to  deliver 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  27 

France,  and  justified  the  foresight  of  the  general.  If  Napo- 
leon had  taken  the  command  of  Henriot,  on  which  side 
would  have  been  the  victory  ?  Ten  days  before  the  9th 
Thermidor,  the  defection  of  Paoli  had  been  consummated. 
A  general  parliament  under  his  presidency  offered  to  the 
King  of  England  the  title  of  King  of  Corsica,  which  was  ac- 
cepted ;  but  with  which  the  English  were  not  contented. 
Paoli  soon  suffered  the  punishment  of  his  error :  those 
whom  he  had  called  desired  to  reign  in  the  island  where  his 
presence  rendered  every  other  domination  than  his  impos- 
sible. There  was,  therefore,  a  perpetual  struggle  between 
them.  What  regrets  must  he  not  have  suffered  in  his  last 
days  ! — for  he  lived  a  sufficient  time  to  behold  that  France, 
which  he  had  abandoned,  arise  up  from  the  abyss  into 
which  she  had  fallen.  He  lived  long  enough  to  behold  the 
victories  and  the  accession  to  the  consulate  of  that  son  of 
Charles  whose  head  he  had  proscribed. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

THE    REACTION. 


*'  JliCt  those  who  are  without  reproach  cast  the  first  stone. 


St.  Maximin  after  the  9th  Thermidor — Error  of  Carnot — St.  Chaman 
— Tiie  Companions  of  Jesus — The  Prison  of  Aix — The  Song  called  "  Le 
R^veil  du  Peuple" — The  Thirteenth  of  Vendemiaire. 

The  Jacobin  terrorists  had  so  completely  oppressed  all 
ranks  of  society,  that  the  reaction  was  certain  to  be  violent. 
Every  day,  notwithstanding  the  convention  and  its  commit- 
tees, opinion  advanced  with  rapidity  towards  another  order 
of  ideas.  The  young  Robespierre  had  evinced  much  esteem 
towards  General  Bonaparte  ;  and  that  was  sufficient  to  cause 
him  to  be  proscribed.  Arrested  upon  imputations  the  most 
frivolous  am^  groundless,  restored  to  liberty  a  few  days  after, 
he  was  definitely  deposed,  and  he  went  to  Paris  to  solicit  an 
employment.  Barras,  more  powerful  than  ever,  received 
him  favourably  enough  to  give  him  some  hopes.  Joseph 
had  retired  to  Genoa.  On  my  side  I  began  to  perceive  the 
inclinations  of  the  well  disposed  around  me,  change  to  cold- 
ness and  disdain.  The  suspected,  restored  to  their  families, 
forgot  very  soon  that  we  had  prevented  their  being  sent  to 
the  guillotine,  and  remembered  only  their  detention.    They 


28  MEMOIRS    OF 

filled  the  popular  society.  The  favour  of  the  multitude  left 
us  gradually,  in  order  to  attach  itself  to  the  counter  revolu- 
tionary party.  This  party,  justly  irritated  at  what  it  had 
suffered,  beheld  in  the  republic  the  cause  of  its  misfortunes. 
It  confounded  the  Jacobins  and  the  moderates,  the  execu- 
tioners and  the  liberators,  all  together  in  the  same  anathema. 
For  them,  republic  and  terror  were  one  and  the  same  thing; 
and  how  was  it  possible  that  it  could  be  otherwise,  since, 
after /or;!y  years,  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  French 
is  still  subjugated  by  the  same  prejudices  ?  Although  I  was 
in  a  small  town  at  a  distance  from  Paris,  I  was  well  placed 
to  judge  the  movements  of  the  reaction.  I  saw  that,  far 
from  contenting  themselves  with  overthrowing  the  dema- 
gogical reign  of  terror,  they  were  about  to  create  a  new 
terror.  I  thought,  therefore,  after  the  9th  Thermidor,  of 
soliciting  a  change  of  residence  in  my  admnii^jtration ;  but 
the  solicitations  of  the  patriots  of  St.  Maximin  detained  me 
in  the  midst  of  them  for  some  months  longer.  They  re- 
doubled in  activity.  We  disputed  the  ground  wuth  the  revo- 
lutionists, and  we  regained  sufficient  influence  to  reassure 
us. 

Thus,  in  our  little  corner  of  the  earth,  we  performed  the 
parody  of  that  which  was  passing  at  the  convention,  where 
the  tail  of  the  committee  of  public  safety  endeavoured  to  re- 
tain the  direction  of  the  political  movement;  but  the  par- 
ody was  better  than  the  piece,  for  we  had  never  stained 
with  blood  our  municipal  dictatorship,  while  the  companions 
of  Robespierre,  having  shared  in  his  crimes,  found  themselves, 
by  their  antecedent  conduct,  obliged  to  justify  the  excesses 
of  the  reign  of  terror.  Carnot  himself,  the  most  esteemed 
and  the  most  estimable  of  the  members  of  the  committee, 
had  even  dared  to  say,  when  he  announced  the  triumphs  of 
our  armies, 

"  These  victories  are  the  effects  of  the  measures  with 
which  they  reproach  us  as  crimes.  It  is  with  these  suc- 
cesses that  we  render' an  account  of  all  the  blood  that  we 
have  shed." 

Carnot  sought  thus  to  cover  with  the  shield  of  his  high 
renown  his  too  guilty  colleagues;  but  that  which  was  gen- 
erous as  a  private  man,  was  a  serious  fault  for  a  statesman. 
It  was  giving  reason  to  the  royalists,  who  confounded  in  one 
all  the  shades  of  republicanism.  They  calumniated,  like- 
wise, the  French  people,  in  supposing  that  the  blood  shed 
upon  the  scaffold  had  been  necessary  for  the  prodigies  of  our 
armies.  Far  from  that — our  armies  performed  prodigies  of 
valour,  notwithstanding  the  horror  with  which  the  crimes  of 
the  interior  inspired  them.  The  prompt  and  violent  meas- 
ures of  the  administration,  the  conscriptions,  the  forced 
circulation  of  the  assignats,  the  forced  loan,  and  even  the 
maximum,  had,  without  doubt,  contributed  to  our  military 


LrCIEN   BONAPARTE.  29 

successes ;  but  never  did  a  drop  of  blood  shed  by  our  tyrants 
upon  the  scaffold  have  the  shghtest  influence  over  our  vic- 
tories— never.  Savans,  learned  men  employed  by  the  com- 
mittee of  the  public  safety,  contributed  greatly  to  those  vic- 
tories in  creating  extraordinary  means,  by  which  they  ob- 
tained twelve  millions  of  saltpetre  in  a  few  months,  instead 
of  one  million,  the  ordinary  produce.  They  owed  to  them 
fifteen  foundries  of  bronze  and  iron,  instead  of  six  that  had 
formerly  existed ;  twenty  new  manufactories  of  arms,  two 
hundred  workshops  for  repairing,  the  telegraph,  and  the  bal- 
loon applied  to  military  service.  In  a  word,  they  owed  to 
them  the  perfection  of  all  the  arts  of  war,  and  the  simplifica- 
tion of  processes  by  the  most  profound  theories.  But  if 
even  Bailli  and  Lavoisier  had  not  fallen  beneath  their  con- 
ventional proscriptions,  would  those  sciences  which  the  re- 
public made  use  of  have  been  less  useful  in  their  results  1 

It  was  then  absurd  to  say  that  the  blood  that  was  shed 
had  served  us  in  our  victories ;  it  was  certainly  not  the 
blood  of  the  chiefs  of  science,  nor  of  the  old  men,  women, 
and  children — nor  that  of  the  martyred  king,  of  his  wife,  and 
his  sister — nor  that  of  the  marriages  in  the  vessels  of  the 
Loire,  nor  of  those  who  fell  by  the  murderous  grape  shot  at 
Lyons  and  Toulon.  The  false  position  in  which  Carnot 
found  himself,  made  him  say  what  he  would  never  else  have 
thought  of  saying.  He  shut  his  eyes  upon  what  might  be 
the  result  of  that  conduct  which  in  the  departments  struck 
us  with  stupor,  and  encouraged  the  fury  of  the  enemies  of 
the  revolution. 

"  Behold,"  said  they,  "  that  atrocious  convention  sup- 
ports Barrere,  Billaud,  Collot,  Carrier,  Fouquier  Tinville : 
those  who  overthrew  Robespierre  are  not,  then  any  better 
than  he.  All  they  wanted  to  do  was  to  save  themselves. 
We  must  get  rid  of  them  altogether :  we  must  disarm  and 
imprison,  in  their  turn,  all  those  who  served  under  the  gov- 
ernment of  terror." 

During  the  first  months  after  Thermidor,  the  conduct  of 
the  convention  did  the  greatest  injury  to  the  patriots  of  the 
provinces ;  its  hesitation,  its  unskilful  returns  towards  the 
reign  of  blood,  compromised  the  republic.  We  multiplied 
addresses  to  them,  in  order  to  satisfy  at  length  the  universal 
indignation  against  the  principal  accomplices  of  Robespierre, 
the  only  measure  to  prevent  the  people  from  doing  justice  to 
themselves.  After  three  months  of  error,  the  convention 
began  to  open  their  eyes,  but  not  soon  enough  to  be  before- 
hand in  the  South,  with  the  companies  of  the  Companions  of 
Jesus,  and  of  the  Sun,  who  took,  as  a  pretext  for  their  or- 
ganization, the  impunity  of  the  great  criminals.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1794,  Carrier  (a  name  for  which  there  is  not  a  sufficient 
epithet  in  the  human  language)  ceased  to  stain  the  soil  of 
France.    In  January,  1795,  the  cavern  of  the  Jacobins  was 

C2 


30  MEMOIRS   OF 

closed.  In  April,  he  who  talked  of  the  awakening  of  the 
lion,  might,  with  more  truth,  have  said  the  awakening  of  the 
tiger ;  and  the  other,  who  took  the  balance  of  the  guillotine  as 
the  die  for  coining  money,  was,  with  one  of  the  two  execu- 
tioners of  Lyons,  condemned  to  transportation.  In  May,  the 
infernal  judge  was  judged  in  his  turn. 

The  partisans  of  the  reign  of  terror,  beaten  on  the  day  of 
the  12th  Germinal,  could  not  prevent  the  banishment  of  their 
chiefs  ;  and  the  convention,  after  these  inevitable  measures 
that  it  had  too  long  retarded,  could  resume  with  less  embar- 
rassment the  course  of  its  dictatorship.  The  last  part  of  the 
year  1795  was  the  most  glorious  for  the  convention.  It 
knew  how  to  subdue  in  turn  the  convulsions  of  terrorism, 
and  the  daring  conspiracies  of  the  royalists. 

Cured  of  its  demagogical  delirium,  it  prepared  the  basis  of 
the  directorial  constitution  founded  upon  the  division  into 
two  chambers  of  the  legislative  power.  It  owed  to  this 
newly  acquired  wisdom,  as  much  as  our  armies,  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  republic  with  several  powers.  The  treaties 
of  peace  with  Tuscany,  La  Vendee,  Prussia,  Holland,  and 
Spain,  succeeded  each  other  after  short  intervals.  But 
while  the  convention  substituted  a  great  deal  of  good  for  all 
the  evil  it  had  permitted  to  be  committed,  the  royalists  of  the 
South  had  in  their  turn  enlisted  bands  of  assassins.  The 
horrible  cry  of  Ca  Ira ! — the  aristocrats  to  the  lantern !  had 
been  succeeded  by  a  hymn  not  less  horrible,  called  "  The 
Awaking  of  the  People."  An  improvident  law  had  ordained 
the  disarming  of  the  terrorists,  and  under  that  name  all  the 
republicans  had  been  disarmed.  It  was  no  longer  possible, 
therefore,  to  resist  the  counter  revolutionists.  I  hastened  to 
quit  St.  Maximin  ;  and  I  set  out  as  inspector  in  a  military 
administration  for  the  commune  of  St.  Chaman,  near  the 
town  of  Cette,  while  Napoleon,  rejected  at  Paris  by  the  com- 
mittee of  war,  thought  of  seeking  service  in  the  East. 

St.  Chaman  was  quiet  enough.  As  chief  of  the  adminis- 
tration, I  was  very  well  received  ;  they  occupied  themselves 
with  poUtics  as  everywhere  else,  but  without  going  to 
extremes.  My  office  occupied  me  only  a  part  of  the  day, 
and  I  went  generally  to  pass  my  afternoons  with  a  very 
amiable  family,  the  most  considerable  in  the  commune, 
whose  name  I  am  ashamed  to  have  forgotten.  They  played 
in  general  at  little  innocent  games  in  the  garden  of  the  house, 
where  several  of  the  neighbours,  both  old  and  young,  were 
assembled.  I  was  closely  engaged  one  day  in  declaiming, 
I  know  not  what  verses,  to  redeem  a  pledge,  when  I  was  in- 
formed that  an  officer  was  at  the  door  and  desired  to  speak 
to  me.  I  made  great  haste  to  go  to  him,  thinking  it  was 
some  affair  belonging  to  the  service ;  and  upon  seeing  the 
personage,  I  was  surprised,  but  not  alarmed.  It  was  the 
young  Auguste  Rey  of  St.  Maximin,  whose  parents  had  been 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  31 

fastened  with  cords  upon  one  of  the  carts,  ready  to  depart 
for  the  tribunal  of  Orange,  when  I  rescued  them.  The  pres- 
ence of  that  young  man,  who  was  scarcely  sixteen  years  of 
age,  was  agreeable  to  me,  and  I  was  only  astonished  to  see 
him  in  a  brilliant  uniform.  It  was  the  uniform  adopted  by 
the  assassins  of  the  South,  too  celebrated  under  the  fantastic 
name  of  the  Companions  of  Jesus. 

"  Well,  Auguste,  what  do  you  want  with  me — and  how  are 
your  parents  ]" 

"  March,  brigand,  and  give  me  your  hands,"  was  his  reply ; 
and  taking  from  his  pocket  a  strong  cord,  he  prepared  to  tie 
my  hands.  Resistance  was  useless — others  of  the  Com- 
panions of  Jesus  were  there.  1  was  then  strongly  fastened, 
and  conducted  to  my  lodging  to  deliver  up  my  papers. 
Auguste  held  the  end  of  the  cord,  and  menaced  me  with  his 
sword  to  make  me  go  faster.  All  our  companions  of  the 
games  ran  to  speak  in  my  favour  as  they  followed  me.  "  He 
is  a  Jacobin,"  replied  my  grateful  young  man :  "  it  is  now 
our  turn  to  be  the  masters.  Go  on,"  he  cried ;  "  and  you, 
citizens,  be  quiet  and  let  us  alone." 

I  must  own  that  the  intervention  of  those  young  ladies 
was  little  agreeable  to  me.  I  should  have  preierred  for  them 
not  to  have  seen  me  in  so  sad  a  plight.  They  took  my  pa- 
pers, and  everything  I  possessed ;  and  after  having  hand- 
cuffed me,  my  guard  made  me  mount  with  him  in  a  cabrio- 
let, his  companions  mounted  on  horseback,  and  we  set  off. 
*'  Where  are  you  going  to  take  me  1  Are  you  going  to  cut 
my  throat,  as  a  recompense  for  having  saved  your  parents?" 

"  No,  you  have  nothing  to  fear  upon  that  score.  I  shall 
take  you  to  the  prison  of  Aix." 

"  To  the  prison  of  Aix  !  Why  it  is  only  a  few  days  since 
the  prisoners  were  massacred.  It  is  as  bad  as  the  prison  of 
Orange." 

It  was  in  vain  I  used  all  my  efforts  to  shake  the  resolution 
of  my  keeper.  He  dragged  me  to  the  prison  of  Aix.  Those 
young  persons,  who  had  all  the  appearance  of  having  been 
well  brought  up,  bellowed  incessantly  in  my  ear  the  burden 
of  the  song  of  the  awaking  of  the  people.  They  shall  not 
escape  us.  In  consigning  me  to  the  jailer,  Auguste  ex- 
claimed, "  Here !  there  is  another  in  the  cage ;  keep  good  guard 
over  him  for  us  against  our  first  visit  /"  I  entered  into  that 
horrible  house,  where,  notwithstanding  it  had  been  washed 
several  times,  the  traces  of  blood  were  still  visible  of  the 
unfortunate  beings  whom  they  had  assassinated  seven  or 
eight  days  before.  It  was  again  filled.  The  chamber  which 
I  occupied  contained  about  a  hundred  prisoners 

That  I  may  not  have  to  speak  again  of  the  unfortunate 
young  man,  I  will  observe  here  that  I  heard  no  more  of.him 
until  several  years  after.  1  then  heard  that,  after  having 
plunged  into  every  excess  of  vice,  he  at  length  expatriated 


\ 


32  MEMOIRS   OP 

himself,  and  had  died  miserably,  far  distant  from  his  honour- 
able family,  who  held  his  conduct  in  horror. 

The  demagogical  party,  driven  to  despair  at  Paris,  organ- 
ized a  last  effort  more  terrible  than  any  of  the  preceding. 
The  hall  of  the  assemblies,  invaded,  was  soiled  with  the 
blood  of  the  representative  Ferraud.  The  vilest  populace 
committed  every  excess  in  the  fatal  days  of  Praireal,  (the 
end  of  May,  1795.)  The  convention  was  at  time  truly  great. 
The  calm  of  Boissy  d'Anglas,  its  president,  the  sublime  at- 
titude of  that  assembly,  silently  seated  upon  their  benches, 
distant  but  two  steps  from  those  who  came  to  murder  them, 
equalled  all  that  history  offers  us  the  most  heroic.  The  fac- 
tions of  1793  were  repulsed  after  repeated  attacks.  The 
revolution  of  Thermidor  ended  in  the  month  of  Praireal. 
Doubtless,  it  can  only  be  from  inadvertence  that  in  a  history 
full  of  talent  upon  the  revolution  those  sanguinary  wretches 
of  Praireal  are  repeatedly  called  patriots!  patriots!  And 
what  then  was  Ferraud,  Boissy  d'Anglas,  and  their  col- 
leagues] This  title  thus  transposed  is  a  stain  upon  that  fine 
history.  Without  doubt,  the  death  of  the  Deputy  Romme 
and  his  companions  was  heroic  ;  their  profound  conviction 
and  their  stoicism  may  leave  an  incertitude  upon  the  justice 
of  their  condemnation.  For  my  part,  I  cannot  persuade  my- 
self to  believe  them  guilty ;  what  connection  could  there 
be  between  such  men  and  brigands  1  In  our  prison  of  Aix, 
they  gave  also  the  name  of  patriots  to  the  insurgents  of 
Praireal.  The  first  news  announced  their  tiiumph.  De- 
tained, with  or  without  reason,  as  terrorists,  we  hoped  for 
our  delivery  from  the  victory  of  the  insurgents;  but  the 
song  of  the  awaking  of  the  people,  which  resounded  with 
redoubled  energy  around  us,  very  soon  proclaimed  the  vani- 
ty of  those  hopes  very  excusable  in  our  position.  We  had 
several  alert  murderers  around  us,  from  whom  we  were  for- 
tunately quit,  with  only  their  ferocious  music.  More  fortu- 
nately still,  an  order  from  Paris,  obtained  by  Napoleon,  re- 
stored me  to  liberty.  It  is  but  just  to  declare  that  Barras 
did  not  evince  any  animosity  towards  those  who  had  re- 
pulsed the  mission  of  his  terrible  agents  at  St.  Maximin ; 
not  that  he  had  forgotten  my  action,  but  from  an  easiness 
of  disposition,  which  was  his  greatest  merit,  he  loved  to 
oblige.  He  contented  himself  v/ith  saying  upon  that  occa- 
sion, that  I  had  been  very  bold,  and  had  a  lucky  escape  ;  and 
it  was  he  who  gave  my  brother  the  order  for  ray  liberty. 

I  had  been  six  weeks  in  prison,  and  left  there  many  citi- 
zens equally  as  innocent  as  myself.  But  such  is  the  justice 
of  parties — they  are  all  alike  ;  and  we  might  say  to  them  as 
to  the  adulteress,  "  Let  those  who  are  without  reproach  cast  the 
first  stone.^''  After  my  deliverance,  1  retired  to  Marseilles. 
The  predominant  opinion  of  that  great  town  was  changed. 
The  defeat  of  the  Jacobins  had  been  celebrated  with  fanati- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  33 

cism.  They  railed  as  rniich  against  the  victorious  convention 
as  against  the  vanquished  Jacobins.  The  catastrophe  of 
Quiberon  (subject  of  ineffaceable  shame  to  the  Enghsh  gov- 
ernment of  that  period,  if  it  be  true  that  it  abandoned  its 
victims,  and  for  the  French  government,  which  had  the  atro- 
cious courage  to  immolate  them,  with  or  without  capitulation) 
raised  the  public  indignation.  The  royalists  were  equallj 
skilful  in  appropriating  to  themselves  the  fruits  of  the  heroism 
and  the  errors  of  the  conventional  party.  The  counter 
revolutionary  spirit  was  not  calmed.  I  liad  no  longer  any 
employment ;  and  I  thought  of  retiring  into  the  country, 
when  fresh  political  struggles  decided  otherwise. 

The  victory  of  Praireal  had  completely  dispelled  the  dema- 
gogical intoxication.  The  ideas  of  justice,  of  concord,  of 
the  division  of  power,  of  equilibrium,  had  replaced  the  fever 
of  the  conventional  dictatorship.  The  enlightened  patriots 
could  make  themselves  heard,  and  the  constitution  of  the 
year  3  enabled  us  to  make  a  giant  step  towards  true  repub- 
lican ideas.  Two  legislative  chambers  and  an  executive 
directory  of  five  members,  offered  a  pledge  of  stability.  In 
the  month  of  August,  that  new  constitution,  enlightened  by 
the  error  of  the  constituent  assembly,  ordered  that  two  thirds 
of  the  two  new  chambers  should  be  taken  into  its  bosom. 

That  law  of  the  13th  Fructidor  exasperated  all  those  who 
were  tired  of  the  yoke  of  the  convention.  It  cannot  be  de- 
nied, that  to  restrain  thus  to  their  own  profit  the  exercise  of 
the  right  of  election,  was  making  an  attempt  upon  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  pope.  To  be  free  from  all  reproach,  the  law 
should  have  been  subm^itted  to  the  same  voting  as  the  consti- 
tution. It  was  what  the  convention  did,  and  then  its  enemies 
had  only  to  obtain  the  majority  of  the  suffrages ;  for  it  is  the 
universal  voting  which  consecrates,  and  which  can  alone 
consecrate  a  new  power.  If  they  recognise  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people,  that  fundamental  maxim  must  unavoidably  be 
acknowledged.  The  royalists,  although  opposed  to  that 
doctrine,  neglected  nothing  to  cause  the  decree  of  Fructidor 
to  be  rejected.  They  succeeded  at  Paris,  but  they  failed  in 
other  places.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  primary  assemblies 
accepted  the  constitution  and  the  decree.  The  sections  of 
Paris,  misled  by  the  royalists,  dared  to  call  to  arms,  notwith- 
standing the  universal  vote.  The  convention  menaced — 
named  Barras  as  chief  of  its  defenders.  Barras  confided  the 
command  to  General  Bonaparte,  who  was  still  without  em- 
ployment. And  the  15th  Vandemiaire  (October,  1795)  could 
not,  unfortunately,  assure  the  triumph  of  the  patriot  party, 
but  at  the  price  of  the  blood  of  too  many  Frenchmen. 

The  constitution  of  the  year  3  was  brought  into  activity, 
as  well  as  the  law  of  Fructidor,  The  General  Bonaparte 
was  promoted  to  the  command  of  Paris — named  Commissary 
of  War.     I  departed  for  the  cap  tal  to  rejoin  my  brother.    It 


\ 


34  MEMOIRS    OP 

will  naturally  be  imagined  how  much  I  reflected  at  that  mo- 
ment upon  what  he  had  said  to  me  at  Antibes,  scarcely  two 
years  before — "  Have  patience ;  in  a  little  time  I  shall  command 
Pans  r 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    DIRECTORY.      UNTIL    THE    EXPEDITION    TO    EGYPT. 


"  in  organizing  the  Powers,  the  force  and  the  success  of  the  Constitu« 
tion  depends  upon  the  equilibrium." — Raynal. 


The  Directorial  Constitution  compared  with  the  Constitution  of  1791— 
Address  of  Raynal  to  the  Assembly — Mirabeau,  Raynal,  and  Napoleon 
— Corsica  re-enters  the  French  Family— Binasco  and  Pavie — Monsieui 
Thiers  and  Waher  Scott — The  inviolability  of  a  Legislative  Assembly 
— Joseph  Bonaparte  at  Rome  and  at  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred — 
Opinion  of  Napoleon  upon  the  Executive  power  of  five  or  three  Magis- 
trates— Expedition  to  Egypt — My  Election  to  the  Legislative  Body. 

I  ARRIVED  in  the  great  capital  a  few  days  after  the  opening 
of  the  legislative  councils,  which  I  entered  three  years  after. 
I  found  my  brother  in  high  favour  with  the  directory.  It 
was  through  his  influence  that  I  was  appointed  commissary 
of  war  to  the  army  of  Moreau,  which  1  joined  after  having 
remained  a  month  at  Paris.  During  this  month's  stay  I 
beheld  everything  on  the  bright  side.  French  society,  re- 
stored to  the  ideas  of  true  liberty  and  public  order,  appeared 
to  me  the  more  admirable  wijen  1  compared  them  to  the  con- 
vulsions of  Jacobinism,  and  to  the  reaction  of  tl^e  Royalism 
of  tlie  South,  of  which  I  had  nearly  become  the  victim.  I 
assisted  frequently  at  the  sittines  of  the  councils,  which  made 
me  take  a  disgust  Lo  the  futictions  that  I  had  hitherto  been 
happy  to  obtain.  I  would  willingly  have  renounced  them  all, 
not  to  have  been  distant  from  the  public  tribunes  ;  but  I  was 
obliged  to  depart  for  Munich,  Brussels,  and  Holland,  where 
I  went  in  turn  during  the  course  of  the  year  1796,  to  execute 
an  employment,  ill  or  well,  in  which  I  occupied  myself  with 
much  less  ardour  than  in  reading  the  political  journals  and 
pamphlets.  I  became  a  very  decided  partisan  of  the  two  cham- 
bers of  the  directorial  government.  Until  that  period,  my 
sentiments  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  prevailing  opin- 
ion ;  but  I  then  found  it  accorded  with  my  own.  Here,  at 
last,  I  said  to  myself,  is  a  republic !    The  division  of  power 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  35 

is  the  guarantee  of  our  liberty.  At  the  general  quarters  of 
the  armies,  I  was  very  fond  of  making  speeches,  and  fre- 
quently got  into  quarrels  with  the  Jacobins  or  Royalists. 
But  soon  the  glory  of  Napoleon,  who  had  just  terminated  in 
a  few  days  his  first  campaign  of  Italy,  that  wonderful  glory, 
covered  me  with  its  brilliancy.  My  chiefs  paid  me  a  great 
deal  of  attention,  and  they  excused  both  my  indolence  in  my 
administration,  and  my  eternal  discussions.  I  obtained  the 
friendship  of  the  general-in-chief,  Tilly,  who  commanded  at 
Brussels,  and  that  of  the  excellent  General  Eble,  commandant 
of  the  artillery  at  Malines,  with  whom  I  remained  over  a 
year.  This  last,  above  all,  was  an  honest  and  since»e  repub- 
lican, and  agreed  perfectly  with  me  in  my  sentiments;  we 
were  strictly  united  in  friendship.  We  thought  the  republic 
was  established  b}  :he  new  constitution.  The  hatred  with 
Which  it  inspired  it;  3  two  extreme  factions  was  its  highest 
commendation. 

These  impressions  of  my  youth  may  have  left  me  some 
prejudices.  I  owe  to  them,  perhaps,  an  erroneous  opinion 
upon  the  directorial  regime  ;  but  I  still  wish  to  think  that  the 
regime  was  not  so  bad,  and  that  if  the  different  factions 
would  have  yielded  to  it,  the  great  republic  was  founded 
upon  a  solid  basis.  A.s  I  have  nothing  to  say  of  myself  that 
merits  p';.bhc  attention,  having  been,  until  1798,  out  of  all 
political  employment,  I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  of  my 
opinions.  Those  opinions  of  1706  and  1797,  have  been  con- 
firmed by  succeeding  events  ;  and  notwithstanding  all  the  ill 
that  has"  been  said  of  the  directorial  constitution,  I  think 
now,  as  I  did  then,  that  a  good  Frenchman,  a  reasonable 
man,  n.ight  be  a  sincere  partisan  of  a  repubhc  founded  upon 
so  good  a  legislative  basis.  If,  notwithstanding  these  bases, 
the  constitution  could  not  resist  the  internal  convulsions  and 
military  reverses,  it  is  only  to  the  relative  weakness  of  an 
executive  power  too  moveable,  to  wnich  it  must  be  attribu- 
ted ;  and  also  with  a  small  portion  of  good  fortune  in  1798, 
and  less  violence  among  the  parties,  the  directorial  regime 
might  have  completed  the  revolution,  and  perfected  it  by 
gradual  and  pacific  ameliorations.  This  assertion  will,  with- 
out doubi,  appear  difficult  to  reconcile  with  the  18th  Bm- 
maire.  Yet,  notwithstanding,  the  18'U  Brumaire,  properly 
considered,  fully  confirms  it.  It  is  what  I  hope  to  develop 
in  the  course  of  these  memoirs. 

The  directt  rial  republican  constitution  offered  more  guar- 
antees for  public  order  than  the  monarchy  of  1791.  Let  us 
compare  the  basis  of  the  two  codes :  as  for  the  code  of  1793, 
which  separates  them,  it  was  but  a  senseless  d^^^iocracy,  in- 
apphcable  to  a  great  nation. 

In  1791,  the  sovereign  or  legislative  power  was  concen- 
trated m  a  siiigle  body,  which  was  to  be  entirely  renewed 
every  two  years. 


36  MEMOIRS    OP 

In  1795,  the  sovereign  power  was  divided  into  two  bodies, 
of  which  the  fifth  part  was  to  be  renewed  every  year.  Now 
the  concentration  of  the  sovereign  power  in  one  individual, 
or  in  a  body,  what  is  it  then  but  despotism  ? 

The  frequent  and  complete  renewal  of  the  individual  or 
of  the  body,  in  which  the  sovereign  power  is  deposited,  what 
else  is  it  but  anarchy  1 

The  constitution  of  '91  was  a  confused  medley  of  the 
principle^  of  despotism  and  anarchy.  It  had  only  displaced 
despotism  or  legislative  unity.  It  exchanged  an  hereditary 
master  for  a  triennial  master.  The  new  master  was  more 
absolute  than  the  old,  for  there  was  no  longer  either  parlia- 
ment, or  noblesse,  or  clergy,  or  provincial  states  to  oppose 
it.  On  the  other  side,  the  triennial  renewal  of  this  absolute 
sovereign  incessantly  brought  the  whole  in  question.  Every 
two  years  we  might  pass  from  a  republic  to  a  monarchy, 
and  from  a  monarchy  to  a  republic ;  there  only  needed  for 
this  a  sudden  transport  of  enthusiasm,  or  a  decree  wrested 
by  fear.  What  a  state  of  society !  The  assembly  called 
the  constituent  had  not  then  constituted  anything.  It  had 
worthily  proclaimed  the  principles  of  liberty,  of  civil  equal- 
ity, and  universal  toleration.  Noble  and  holy  inheritance  that 
we  owe  to  it !  but  it  had  erred  completely  in  the  application. 
It  was  an  assembly  of  philosophers,  rather  than  an  assembly 
of  legislators ;  and  was  it  to  be  wondered  at  1  How,  at  the  first 
step,  could  it  attam  its  ends  in  that  arduous  career,  when  the 
history  of  the  world  only  signalizes  five  or  six  names  for 
the  admiration  of  posterity  ]  For  the  task  which  that  as- 
sembly had  given  itself  (forgetting  the  limits  of  its  man- 
dates) was  absolute  :  entirely  to  renew  a  social  order  !  So- 
lon and  Lycurgus  were  very  far  from  having  so  great  a  task 
to  fulfil ;  and  they  had  passed  a  long  life  in  meditating  upon 
what  we  were  expected  to  perform  at  once.  The  constitu- 
ent assembly  had  for  uitecedents  only  the  theories  of  Rous- 
seau, of  Montesquieu,  and  other  great  writers,  and  the  ex- 
ample of  England  and  that  more  recent  one  of  America. 
But  its  work  answered  only  those  antecedents  in  its  immor- 
tal preface,  the  declaration  of  rights ;  as  for  the  book  itself, 
its  deplorable  influence  was  and  must  remain  in  an  inverse 
sense  from  the  intention  of  its  authors. 

The  executive  power,  formed  by  the  constituent  assembly, 
had  the  wisdom  to  retain,  even  after  the  flight  of  Louis  XVI. 
to  Varennesj  the  unity  of  that  power,  and  its  succession ; 
but  it  had  overturned,  in  its  impatuous  course,  all  the  de- 
fenders of  royally.  It  placed  then  a  throne,  without  a  basis 
and  v/ithout  support,  before  a  sovereign  ail  powerful,  and 
changing  continually.  Ic  left  to  that  shadow  of  a  king,  nei- 
ther the  proposition  of  the  law^,  no*-  the  right  of  dissolving 
them.  A  suipeiisiv  veto  for  two  years  served  only  to  ex- 
pose it  to  the  vengeance  of  an  absolute  master.    The  cen- 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  37 

stituent  assembly,  having  concentrated  the  supreme  power 
in  a  single  popular  body,  had  founded  the  democracy,  and  it 
would  have  been  therefore  more  wise  and  less  cruel  (inten* 
tions  apart)  to  have  sent  Louis  XVI.  out  of  France.  .  .  . 
With  the  constitution  of  1791,  there  was  no  longer  any  pos- 
sibility of  royalty.  The  President  of  the  United  States 
had  more  power  than  they  had  left  to  the  King  of  the 
French. 

And  in  1795,  the  executive  directory  had  more  power  than 
Louis  XVL  In  the  first  place,  there  was  no  longer  only 
one  sovereign.  The  legislative  power,  divided  between  the 
two  councils,  left  to  the  directory  a  relative  force,  superior 
to  that  of  the  king  of  1791.  One  of  these  two  councils  being 
accessible  only  to  men  of  forty  years  of  age,  offered  a  still 
stronger  guarantee  of  order  and  stability.  The  reading  of 
each  proposition,  three  different  times,  with  an  interval  of 
three  days  between  each,  prevented  the  council  of  five  hun- 
dred from  coming  to  a  hasty  decision  without  time  for  re- 
flection. The  two  councils,  therefore,  being  renewed  by 
fifths  every  year,  rendered  the  change  almost  imperceptible 
and  without  danger.  Ail  the  advantages,  therefore,  were  on 
the  side  of  the  directory. 

It  will  be  observed,  without  doubt,  that  an  executive 
power  of  five  chiefs  did  not  offer  to  a  great  nation  so  strong 
a  guarantee  as  the  unity  of  the  hereditary  executive  power 
of  1791,  It  is  true  that  the  directory  had  neither  unity  nor 
right  of  inheritance  ;  but  its  renewal  was  as  prudently  com* 
bined  as  that  of  the  councils.  Chosen  by  the  council  of  an- 
cients upon  a  tenfold  list,  forme-d  by  the  council  of  five  hun^ 
dred,  the  directors  were  named  for  five  years.  One  among 
them  only  went  out  every  year.  This  method  left  to  the 
executive  power  almost  as  much  force  as  if  it  had  not  been 
temporary.  And  besides,  is  it  nothing  to  be  freed  for  ever 
from  minorities,  regencies,  and  disputes  of  succession  1  But 
this  order  of  ideas  did  not  appertain  to  the  epoch  of  the  di- 
rectory. I  am  advancing  too  far  upon  the  subject,  and  I 
hasten  to  retrace  my  steps. 

The  monarchy  of  1791  had  still  against  it  the  power  of  the 
clubs,  whose  existence  it  had  consecrated  ;  at  the  same  time 
they  were  prohibited  in  the  directorial  charter.  That  single 
difference  was  decisive.  The  work  of  1791  might  have  be- 
come less  imperfect  if  the  great  orator  had  not  closed  his 
eyes  at  the  moment  when  the  court  had  learned  to  appreciate 
him ;  a  sentiment  common  to  all  parties  made  them  look 
upon  the  death  of  Mirabeau  as  a  national  calamity.  But  this 
powerful,  intrepid,  and  true  statesman,  who  did  not  bend  be- 
fore the  opinion  of  the  day  when  he  thought  it  pernicious — 
could  he,  in  spite  of  that  opinion,  have  established  two  cham- 
bers !  That  is  not  probable.  Besides  the  death  of  Mirabeau* 
which  preceded,  by  four  months,  the  publication  of  the 

D 


38  MEMOIRS    OF 

^charter  of  1791, left  a  void  which  the  well  disposed endeav- 
'oured  in  vain  to  fill  up.  A  project  of  revisal,  concerted 
among  the  friends  of  the  constitutional  monarchy,  was  frus- 
trated by  some  unfavourable  circumstances ;  but  if  it  had  suc- 
ceeded, that  revision  would  have  remained  powerless  before 
a  single,  absolute,  and  triennial  chamber.  To  subdue  and 
bring  back  opinions  towards  the  system  of  the  two  chambers, 
against  which  public  opinion  had  pronounced  its  anthema, 
required  the  greatest  civil  courage,  united  with  magical  in- 
fluence. I  was  necessary  to  brave  the  name  of  aristocrat  ; 
and  let  us  not  fear  to  say  it :  if  we  go  to  a  battle  as  we 
would  go  to  a  fete,  civil  courage  is  in  general  less  commori 
among  us.  We  would  sooner  brave  death  than  the  hisses 
of  an  assembly,  or  of  the  multitude.  We  sacrifice  too  much 
to  the  pLeasure  of  being  applauded  ;  and  when  we  are  con- 
tradicted in  our  opinion,  instead  of  appreciating  the  courage 
of  our  opponents,  we  excommunicate  them  without  tolera- 
tion. Thus  twenty  days  after  the  death  of  IMirabeau,  we 
beheld  one  of  those  great  geniuses,  the  honour  of  the  18th 
century,  the  famour  Abbe  Raynal,  treated  with  the  most 
profound  disdain,  when  he  went  himself  to  read  at  the  bar 
of  the  assembly  a  prophetic  address,  in  which  were  the  fol- 
lowing passages  : — 

"  Called  to  regenerate  France,  yon  ought  to  consider  what 
you  could  usefully  preserve  of  the  ancient  order;  and,  above 
all,  that  which  you  could  not  abandon.  France  being  a  mon- 
archy. .  .  .  Purify  the  principles  by  seating  the  throne  upon 
its  true  basis,  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation :  fix  the  limits  by 
placing  them  in  the  national  representation,  was  what  you 
had  to  do.  And  you  think  you  have  done  it!  But  in  organ- 
izing the  powers,  the  f;)rce,  and  the  success  of  the  constitu- 
tion, depended  upon  the  equilibrium ;  and  you  had  to  defend 
yourselves  against  the  bent  of  prevailing  ideas.  You  ought 
to  have  seen  thatthepowerof  kings  was  declining  in  opinion, 
and  that  the  rights  of  the  people  were  increasing.  Thus  in 
weakening  without  measure  that  which  tends  to  deca}^  nat- 
urally, in  fortifying  without  proportion  that  which  tends 
naturally  to  increase,  you  arrive  forcibly  at  the  sad  result — 
of  a  king  without  authority — a  'people  ivithout  reslTaint .'" 

And  that  illustrious  old  man,  who,  upon  the  brink  of  the 
grave,  performed  so  admirable  an  act  of  patriotism,  was 
scoffed  at :  they  were  provoked  at  his  boldness.  If  Jean 
Jaques,  Voltaire,  and  Montesquieu,  had  accompanied  him, 
they  would  not  have  met  with  better  success.  What  would 
have  been  the  science  of  those  men,  compared  with  the  sci- 
ence of  the  day]  That  intolerance  of  opinion  has  too  often 
overwhelmed  in  our  assemblies  the  voice  of  our  best  citizens  ; 
and  perhaps  our  giant  of  the  tribune,  our  Mirabeau  himself, 
died  in  time  for  his  glory. 

The  names  of  Raynal  and  Mirabeau  bring  me  back  to  Na- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  39 

poieon.     Napoleon,  in  one  of  those  cong^es  which  he  went  to 

Eass  at  Ajaecio,  (it  was,  I  believe,  in  1790,)  had  composed  a 
istory  of  the  revolutions  of  Corsica,  of  which  I  wrote  two 
copies,  and  of  which  1  mucli  regret  the  loss.  One  of  these 
manuscripts  was  addressed  by  him  to  tlie  Abbe  Raynal,  whom 
my  brother  had  known  on  his  passage  to  Marseilles.  Raynal 
found  that  work  so  extremely  remarkable,  that  he  decided 
upon  communicating  it  to  Mirabeau,  who,  on  returning  the  ^ 

manuscript,  wrote  to  Raynal  that  that  little  history  appeared  \ 

to  him  to  announce  a  genius  of  the  first  order.  The  reply 
of  Raynal  accorded  with  the  opinion  of  the  great  orator;  and  / 

Napoleon  was  enchanted.  1  have  made  a  great  many  re- 
searches in  vain  to  find  these  manuscripts ;  they  were  per- 
haps destroyed  in  the  burning  of  our  house  by  the  troops  of 
Paoli. 

These  literary  communications  had  strengthened  the  ad- 
miration of  Napoleon  for  those  two  great  men  of  genius. 
The  death  of  Mirabeau  afflicted  him  very  sensibly.  The  ad- 
dress of  Raynal  to  the  constituent  assembly  was  not  with- 
out in.luence  upon  us  ;  and  if  Paoli  had  confined  himself  to 
declaring  for  the  party  in  France,  favourable  to  the  ideas  of 
political  equilibrium,  we  should  have  seconded  him  with  all 
our  efforts. 

The  course  of  events  had  decided  it  otherwise,  and  we 
could  but  felicitate  ourselves.  Napoleon  had  arrived  at  the 
theatre  of  that  great  war  for  which  he  felt  himself  born ;  and 
from  his  field  of  victory,  it  sufficed  for  iiim  to  send  some  of- 
ficers and  arms  to  tear  Corsica  from  the  English  and  from 
Paoli,  who  disputed  it  with  them.  Already  the  young  re- 
nown of  Napoleon  had  effaced  the  former  renown  of  the  an- 
cient chief.  Among  the  officers  sent  into  Corsica,  was  the 
brave  Costa  of  Bastelica^  the  defender  of  our  family  in  the 
days  of  adversity. 

I  had  just  arrived  at  Genoa  in  time  to  see  the  departure 
of  our  islanders,  and  to  embrace  Costa,  for  whom  I  had  al- 
ways, from  my  childhood,  a  particular  friendship.  Had  it 
not  been  for  the  impatience  which  I  felt,  to  behold,  in  the 
midst  of  his  triumphs,  my  brother,  already  master  of  Lombar- 
dy,  1  should  have  set  out  for  Ajaecio.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  days  we  learned  that  the  whole  island  had  revolted,  and 
that  Paoli,  in  despair,  had  taken  refuge  in  London,  where  he 
received,  till  his  last  hour,  that  respect  which  was  his  due. 
They  even  wished  to  perpetuate  that  respect  by  erecting  to 
his  memory  a  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey.  It  is  also  in  an 
English  tomb  that  Napoleon  reposes  ! !  !  But  what  a  tomb  ! 
— what  a  vengeance  !  Oh !  eternal  shame  to  freemen,  who 
become  the  instruments  of  despotic  kings  !  I  fear  not,  noble 
British  nation,  although  amid  ye,  to  let  this  fraternal  cry  es- 
cape me.  1  have  travelled  in  your  provinces  and  in  your 
palaces ;  in  your  houses  and  in  your  cottages.    1  have  often 


40  MEMOIRS    OF 

been  affected  with  the  sight  of  the  image  of  Napoleon  ;  and 
I  have  exclaimed,  a  hundred  times,  on  beholding  it,  "  Here 
is  what  attests  the  sentiment  of  reparation  in  a  nation  that 
knows  how  to  appreciate  a  hero.  Those  who  confined  and 
suffered  the  noble  victim  to  die  upon  the  rock  of  St.  Helena, 
did  they  show  themselves  worthy  of  the  great  people  whom 
they  governed?" 

I  had  obtained  permission  to  quit  the  North  to  goto  Milan, 
where  our  army  had  made  its  entry.  Napoleou  was  no  lon- 
ger at  Milan,  The  revolt  of  Pavia  had  just  broken  out,  and 
it  was  said  that  the  general  was  gone  to  the  banks  of  the 
Adige  to  chastise  the  guilty  city.  I  hastened  to  Pavia. 
Upon  the  road  my  eyes  were  struck  with  the  distant  reflec- 
tion of  a  vast  fire.  It  was  the  village  of  Rinasco,  delivered 
up  to  the  flames,  to  expiate  the  assassination  of  several  of 
our  straggling  soldiers.  1  traversed  the  burning  ruins. 
Pavia  presented  me,  in  a  few  moments  after,  with  a  specta- 
cle even  more  deplorable.  'I  hat  great  city  had  been  deliv- 
ered up  to  pillage  in  the  morning ;  the  traces  of  blood  had 
not  been  washed  away.  The  bodies  of  the  peasants,  who 
had  refused  to  surrender,  were  not  carried  away.  People 
were  occupied  with  those  funeral  rites  within  the  gate  by 
which  I  entered.  The  streets  and  places  were  transformed 
into  a  perfect  fair,  where  the  conquerors  were  selling  to  hid- 
eous speculators  the  spoils  of  the  vanquished  !  What  mis- 
eries even  in  the  most  just  of  wars — in  the  most  necessary 
of  victories ! 

1  could  only  remain  with  my  brother  half  a  day.  He  was 
to  return  in  the  evening  upon  his  favourite  line  of  the  Adige. 
He  gave  me  his  instructions,  and  I  departed  for  Corsica. 
After  some  days  of  a  stormy  voyage,  I  found  myself  in  my 
beloved  native  town,  where  I  thought  only  of  obtaining  the 
suffrages  of  my  fellow-citizens  for  the  epoch  when  I  should 
become  eligible. 

The  last  six  months  of  the  year,  and  the  following,  ('96 
and  '97,)  were  filled  with  the  exploits  of  Napoleon  and  the 
army  of  Italy.  From  Montenotte  to  Campo  Formio,  it  was 
a  continuation  of  prodigies.  "  When  we  consider  it  alto- 
gether, the  imagination  is  struck  with  the  multitude  of  the 
battles,  the  fecundity  of  the  conceptions,  and  the  immensity 
of  the  results.  Entering  into  Italy  with  thirty  and  a  few 
thousand  men,  Bonaparte  separated,  in  the  first  place,  the 
Piedmontese  from  the  Austrians  at  Montenotte,  and  at  Mil- 
lesimo  succeeds  in  destroying  the  first  at  Mondovi ;  then 
hastens  after  the  second — passes  the  Po  before  them  at  Plai- 
sance,  the  Adda  at  Lodi,  takes  possession  of  Lombardy — 
stops  for  a  moment — soon  resumes  his  march — finds  the  Aus- 
trians reinforced  upon  the  Mincio,  and  completes  their  de- 
struction at  the  battle  of  Borghetto.  There  he  seized,  as 
with  a  coup  d'oeil,  the  plan  of  his  future  operations ;  it  is 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  43 

composed  (in  1795,  as  it  was  in  1791)  of  proprietors  only, 
whose  income  equalled  a  hundred  days  of  work.  The  infe- 
rior properties  of  those  who  had  not  any  property,  although 
they  composed  the  majority  of  the  nation,  were  not  repre- 
sented at  all.  Even  the  exercise  of  communal  suffrage  ap- 
pertained only  to  those  who  paid  a  contribution  equal  to 
three  days'  work,  (in  1791,)  and  a  contribution  of  some  sort 
in  1795.  The  convention  had  much  enlarged  the  basis  of 
the  right  of  citizens  fixed  by  the  constituent  assembly ;  but 
that  basis  was  not  the  universal  suffrage  in  the  community. 
Thus,  there  were  still  in  France  two  distinct  populations, 
one  composed  of  inhabitants  without  any  political  rights, 
subject,  nevertheless,  to  all  the  duties  ;  and  the  other  com- 
posed of  privileged  citizens,  having  solely  the  right  of  nom- 
inating the  electors.  It  was  reserved  for  the  constitution  of 
Brumaire  to  consecrate  universal  suffrage,  and  to  modify  it 
by  the  triennial  hsts  of  notables.  I  mean  here  to  speak  only 
of  the  republican  constitution  of  Brumaire.  1  consider  that 
alone  in  my  reflections,  and  I  sei  aside  the  senatus  consultes 
soi  disant  organic  which  succeeded  it.  Everything  which 
regards  the  constitutive  laws  of  ttje  empire  is  foreign  to  my 
examination,  because  it  was  but  a  glorious  dictatorship,  for 
ever  immortalized  by  the  heroism  of  our  armies,  and  by  the 

universal  concord But  it  was  not,  nor  could  it  be  the 

definitive  code  of  a  free  nation.  I  take  then  only  for  the 
scope  of  my  investigations,  in  these  memoirs,  the  charters 
of  the  constituent  assembly  of  the  directory,  the  consulate, 
and  1830. 

The  charter  of  the  directory  having  given  us  only  privi- 
leged electors,  the  councils  could  only  represent  the  propri- 
etors who  had  named  them.  It  is  less  surprising  then,  that 
after  that  the  mass  of  the  nation  should  find  itself  in  opposi- 
tion to  this  imperfect  representation,  the  audacity  of  which 
increased  every  day.  It  drove  the  government  to  the  last 
extremity.  It  had  already  taken  from  it,  with  the  direction 
of  the  treasury,  every  pecuniary  resource;  and  there  re- 
mained only  to  organize  the  national  guard  of  Paris,  as 
planned  by  Pichegru,  to  assure  the  fall  of  the  directory. 

Ought  the  armies  of  the  republic  thus  to  have  suffered  the 
counter  revolution  to  reap  the  fruits  of  a  hundred  victories  1 

We  had  now  arrived  at  a  political  crisis  which  left  us  only 
the  choice  between  illegality  and  the  counter  revolution. 
The  illegality  of  the  18lh  Fructidor  saved  the  country. 
Hoche  had  caused  several  bodies  of  troops  to  approach 
Paris.  Napoleon  had  thought  it  ^sufficient  to  send  Ange- 
reau  with  the  menacing  addresse's  of  the  army  of  Italy. 
The  national  representation  was  violated  by  2  coup  d'etat, 
and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  nation  applauded  the  proscrip- 
tion of  two  hundred  of  its  deputies.  The  majority  of  the 
directory,  Hocbe  and  Bonaparte  united   to  the   legislative 


44  MEMOIRS    OF 

Tuinority,  accomplished  a  melancholy  duty,  but  the  absolute 
duty  of  a  citizen,  in  not  respecting  the  inviolability  of  the 
majority  of  the  councils,  because  the  inviolability  of  a  chief 
or  of  an  assembly  does  not  require  them  to  betray  with  im- 
punity the  object  of  their  political  mandate.  Instituted  to 
maintain  a  republic,  tlie  councils  in  seeking-  to  destroy  it 
ceased  to  be  inviolable.  Insurrection,  or  a  coup  d'etat,  is  a 
natural  right  in  such  a  crisis.  It  is  the  double  right  of  pub- 
lic welfare  and  individual  defence.  Pichegru,  recognised  as 
a  traitor  to  his  country,  and  conspiring  with  foreigners,  had 
seduced  or  corrupted  the  majority  of  a  legislative  chamber: 
that  chamber  attacked  the  republic  which  it  was  charged  to 
defend.  And  from  that  time  the  coup  d'etat  and  insurrection 
were  right,  just,  legitimate,  necessary.  Sad  necessity,  with- 
out doubt  the  most  melancholy  of  all  political  necessities, 
but  a  necessity  justified  by  right  and  duty.  .  .  .  It  is  giving  a 
senseless  extension  to  the  inviolability  of  an  assembly  not 
constituent.,  but  constituted,  that  vve  may  condemn  the  18th 
Fructidor.  They  approve  (even  of  principle)  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  inviolability  has  for  its  limits  the  order  imposed 
upon  all  legislative  assemblies.  Thus  the  nation  and  the 
army  celebrated  the  18th  Fructidor  as  a  day  of  triumph. 
The  hopes  of  Austria  were  baffled  ;  and  the  peace,  which 
was  suspended  by  the  plots  of  the  royalists,  was  signed  at 
Campo  Formio.  Unfortunately,  the  coup  d'etat  of  Fructidor 
was  not  submitted,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  to  the  vote  of 
the  nation.  Still  more  unfortunately,  the  severity  which  re- 
called the  days  of  terror  dishonoured  Fructidor.  And  an 
atrocious  banishment  condemned  the  vanquished  to  live  and 
die  in  the  deserts  of  Sinamari ! 

Napoleon,  conqueror  and  pacificator,  arrived  in  Paris  at 
the  end  of  that  year.  The  directory  gave  him,  at  the  Lux- 
embourg, a  triumphant  reception,  of  which  all  our  historians 
have  repeated  the  details.  Fhe  public  mind  was  so  much 
exalted,  that  the  government  could  not  avoid  feeUng  some 
inquietude  and  ih-concealed  mistrust.  What  Frenchman 
remain  calm  in  reading,  upon  a  great  banner  which  was  pre- 
sented in  that  solemnity  to  the  army  of  Italy,  that  inscrip- 
tion without  a  rival  in  history,  either  ancient  or  mode-n? 

"  The  army  of  Italy  has  made  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
prisoners — has  taken  a  hundred  and  seventy  colours,  five 
hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  siege  artillery,  six  hundred  field 
pieces,  five  bridge  equipages,  nine  vessels,  twelve  frigates, 
twelve  sloops,  eighteen  galleys — armistice  with  the  Kings 
of  Sardinia,  of  Naples,  the  pope,  the  Dukes  of  Parma  and 
Modena — preliminaries  of  Leoben — convention  of  Monte- 
bello  with  the  republic  of  Genoa — treaties  of  peace  of  To- 
lentino,  and  Campo  Formio — liberty  given  to  the  people  of 
Bologna,  of  Ferrara,  of  Modena,  of  Massa — Carrara,  of  Ro- 
magna,  of  Lombardy,  of  Bresica,  of  Bergamo,  of  Mantua,  of 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  41 

upon  the  Adige  that  he  must  establish  himself  to  face  the 
Austrians.  As  for  the  princes  that  were  in  his  rear,  he  con- 
tents himself  by  holding  them  in  check  with  negotiations 
and  menaces.  A  second  army  is  sent  against  him  nnder 
Wurniser.  He  could  only  defeat  it  by  rapidly  concentrating 
his  own  forces,  and  sinking  alternately  each  of  those  iso- 
lated masses.  As  a  resolute  man,  he  sacrifices  the  blockade 
of  Mantua,  overwhelms  VVurmser  at  Lonato,  at  Castiglioiie, 
and  drives  him  again  into  the  Tyrol.  Wurmser  is  reinforced 
at  Beaulieu.  Bonaparte  was  beforehand  with  him  in  the 
Tyrol,  remounts  the  Adige,  overturns  all  before  hitn  at  Rove- 
redo,  throws  himself  across  the  valley  of  the  Brenta,  cuts  off 
"Wurmser,  who  thought  of  cutting  him  off,  overthrows  him 
at  Bassano,  and  shuts  him  up  in  JMantua.  This  is  the  second 
Austrian  army  destroyed  afier  being  reinforced. 

"  Conaparte,  always  negotiating,  menacing  from  the  banks 
of  the  Adige,  awaits  the  third  army.  It  is  formidable.  It 
arrives  before  he  has  received  a  reinforcement.  He  is 
obliged  to  give  way  before  it:  he  is  reduced  to  despair.  He 
is  about  to  fall  before  it  when  he  finds,  in  the  middle  of  an 
impracticable  marsh,  two  dikes  that  opened  on  the  flanks 
of  the  enemy.  He  throws  himself  into  the[n  with  an  incred- 
ible audacity.  He  conquers  again  at  Areola.  But  the  ene- 
my, though  stopped,  is  not  destroyed.  He  returns  a  last 
time,  and  more  powerful  than  the  first.  On  one  side  he  de- 
scends the  mountains  ;  on  the  other,  he  coasts  along  the  side 
of  the  lower  Adige.  Bonaparte  there  discovers  the  only 
point  where  the  Austrian  columns,  scattered  over  a  moun- 
tainous country,  might  reunite.  He  springs  upon  the  cele- 
brated platform  of  Rivoli ;  and  from  that  platform  falls  like 
a  thunderbolt  upon  the  principal  army  of  Alvinzy  :  thence 
resuming  his  flight  towards  the  lower  Adige,  entirely  sur- 
rounds the  column  that  had  crossed  it.  This  is  his  last  opera- 
tion and.  the  finest,  for  here  good  fortune  united  with  genius. 
Thus,  in  ten  months,  besides  the  Piedmontese  army,  three 
formidable  armies,  three  times  reinforced,  had  been  destroyed 
by  an  army  which  was  little  more  than  thirty  thousand  strong 
at  the  beginning-  of  the  campaign,  had  scarcely  received 
twenty  to  repair  its  losses.  Thus,  fifty-five  thousand  French- 
men had  beaten  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  Austrians, 
had  taken  above  eighi'y  thousand,  slain  or  wounded  more 
than  twenty  thousand — had  engaged  in  twelve  pitched  bat- 
tles, and  more  than  sixty  others,  passing  several  rivers,  in 
braving  the  floods  and  the  fire  of  the  enemy.  When  war  is 
a  purely  mechanical  routine,  consisting  only  in  driving  or 
kiUing  the  enemy  that  is  before  us,  it  is  little  worthy  of  his- 
tory. But  when  one  of  those  encounters  presents  itself, 
where  we  behold  a  mass  of  men,  actuated  by  one  sole  and 
vast  thought,  which  develops  itself  in  the  midst  of  bursting 
thunder,  with  as  much  clearness  as  a  Newton  or  a  Descartes 

D2 


42  MEMOIRS    OF 

in  the  silence  of  the  closet,  then  the  spectacle  is  worthy  of 
the  philosopher,  as  well  as  the  statesman  and  the  soldier. 
If  this  identification  of  the  multitude,  with  one  single  indi- 
vidual, which  produces  strength  in  its  highest  degree,  helps 
to  protect  and  defend  a  noble  cause,  that  of  liberty — then 
the  scene  becomes  equally  moral  and  grand." 

I  could  not  resist  the  desire  I  felt  to  transcribe  this  page 
of  M.  Thiers,  (in  his  History  of  the  Revolution,)  a  most  ad- 
mirable strain  of  truth  and  eloquence.  What  can  be  better 
said  ?  I  trust  that  the  reader  will  pardon  me  this  long  quo- 
tation, worthy  of  the  minister  who  will,  without  doubt,  con- 
tribute to  the  return  of  his  ashes  from  St.  Helena.  .  .  . 
Sir  Walter !  Sir  Walter !  this  is  the  way  to  write  history ! 
When  we  do  not  know  how  to  free  ourselves  from  the  miser- 
able spirit  of  localities  and  parties,  we  should  not  pretend  to 
judge  of  real  heroes. 

The  armies  of  the  North,  commanded  by  Hoche,  Moreaii, 
and  Jourdan,  rivalled  in  patriotism  and  ardour  the  army  of 
Napoleon.  So  great  a  success,  which  guarantied  the  exter- 
nal peace,  could  not  remain  without  influence  in  the  interior. 
Could  they  suffer  to  be  prepared,  with  sang  froid,  the  fall  of 
the  republic  1  Was  it  for  our  enemies  that  the  armies  had 
triumphed  1  It  was  in  vain  that  the  directory  had  at  first 
repressed,  with  a  firm  hand,  the  Jacobin  conspiracy  of  Ba- 
beuf,  and  the  royalist  conspiracy  of  Brothier.  The  embar- 
rassment of  the  finances,  still  overburdened  by  assignats 
and  territorial  mandates  of  no  value,  incessantly  presented 
fresh  obstacles.  The  Jacobins  did  not  dare  to  complain  after 
our  victories;  and,  above  all,  after  the  establishment  of  the 
republics  in  Italy.  The  national  glory  which,  even  in  the  in- 
auspicious days  of  their  blood-stained  errors,  never  ceased 
to  cause  those  ardent  hearts  to  palpitate,  had  momentarily 
suspended  their  opposition.  But  these  victories,  these  new 
republics  only  exasperated  the  foreign  factions ;  which  ably 
profited  by  the  embarrassment  of  the  finances,  and  to  so  great 
a  degree  that  the  directory,  although  victorious  externally, 
was  upon  the  brink  of  its  fall.  The  terrible  lesson  of  Vende- 
miaire  appeared  to  be  forgotten  by  the  royalists  of  Paris  ; 
and  Austria,  well  informed  of  their  plots,  had  found  sufficient 
courage  to  retard  the  signature  of  peace. 

How  had  the  royalists  arrived  at  such  a  result?  They 
had  become  the  masters  of  the  elections  ;  and  it  was  at  the 
head  of  the  legislative  councils  themselves  that  they  were 
marching  to  the  counter  revolution.  They  hoped  to  do  it 
legally.  Pichegru,  who  had  for  a  longtime  been  a  traitor  to 
the  republic,  was  in  correspondence  with  the  Prince  de  Con- 
de  and  the  Austrians.  At  the  renewal  of  the  second  Tiers 
Etat  he  had  been  named  to  the  council  of  five  hundred.  El- 
evated to  the  presidency  of  that  council,  he  was  certain  of 
the  support  of  the  majority,  becau=ie  the  electoral  body  was 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  45 

Cremona ;  of  a  part  of  the  Veronese,  of  Chiavenna,  of  Bor- 
niio  and  the  Valtelline ;  to  the  people  of  Genoa,  to  the  im- 
perial fiefs,  to  the  people  of  the  departments  of  Corey ra,  to 
the  ^gean  sea  and  Iihaca.  Sent  to  Paris  the  chief  d'ceuvres 
of  Michael  Angelo — of  Guerchino,  of  Titian,  or  Paul  Vero- 
nese, of  Correggio,  of  Albano,  of  the  Carraccis,  of  Raphael,  of 
Leonardo  da  Vitici,  &c.  Triumphed  in  eighteen  pitched 
bailies — Montenotte,  Millesimo,  Mondovi,  Lodi,  Borghetto, 
Donaio,  Castiglione,  Roveredo,  Bassano,  St.  Georges,  Fon- 
tanassova,  Caldiero,  Areola,  Rivuli,  La  Favorite,  Le  Taglia- 
mento,  Tarwis,  and  Neumarkt — engaged  in  sixty-seven  bat- 
tles." 

The  peace  of  Campo  Formio  had  thus  acknowledged  in 
Italy  the  Cisalpine  republic,  of  which  the  finest  province  of 
the  Holy  See  formed  a  part.     The  republican  spirit  in  Ro- 
mania, and  the  papal  legations,  soon  communicated  itself  to 
the  rest  of  the  Roman  states.     Joseph  Bonaparte,  ambassa- 
dor at  Rome,  employed  his  influence  to  maintain  the  public 
peace,  and  followed  with  address  and  firmness,  the  pacific 
instructions  of  the  directory.     But  nothing  could  stop  the 
republicans  of  Rome,  and  the  insurrection  broke  out  with- 
out combination  or  support.     The  insurgents,  repulsed  by 
the  troops  of  the  Holy  See,  and  by  a  furious  multitude,  took 
refuge  in  the  palace  of  the  ambassadors,  where  they  pursued 
them,  without  respect  for  the  diplomatic  jurisdiction.     My 
brother  sprang  forward  to  endeavour  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
confusion.     .    .     .     And  the  brave    General   Duphot,  who 
was  at  his  side,  was  struck  with  a  mortal  blow.     The  am- 
bassador quitted  Rome,  and  hastened  to  Paris.     We  had  at 
the  same  time  nominated  him  in  Corsica,  member  of  the 
council  of  five  hundred.     The  General  Berthier  received  or- 
ders to  invade  Rome,  which  was  constituted  a  republic,  and, 
like  Milan,  Amsterdam,  and   Switzerland,  wished  to  imitate 
the  directorial  constitutioa.     That  political   imitation  was 
the  natural  result  of  events.     Napoleon  had  been  desirous  of 
introducing  some  changes  in  the  Italian  constitutions.     He 
had  proposed  to  give  more  strengui  to  the  Cisalpine  govern- 
ment, by  reducing  the  five  to  three  directors ;  but  that  prop- 
osition had  displeased  the  French  government,  who  insisted 
upon  the  geneial's  abandoning  his  project  of  concentration. 
The  general  obeyed  with  regret.     He  had  also  in  vain  de- 
manded that  Sieyes  might  be  sent  to  him,  that  he  might  aid 
him   in  his  constitutional  improvements.     He  thought  that 
these  essays  of  legislation,  applied  to  the  republics  of  Italy, 
might  hereafter  be  applied  to  France,  when  experience  had 
proved  their  advantages ;  and  as  soon  as  he  could  manifest 
his  opinion  without  fading  in  his  duty,  he  did  it  openly.     Ge- 
noa had  not  been  conquered  like  the  Cisalpine :  mistress  to 
give  herself  the  laws  that  she  preferred,  the  councils  which 
she  asked  of  Napoleon,  were  a  pledge  of  confidence  which 


46  MEMOIRS    OF 

left  him  entirely  at  liberty.  Also,  without  the  intervention 
of  the  directory,  and  notwithstanding  the  contrary  order  ex- 
ecuted at  Milan,  Nopoleon  decided  at  Genoa,  the  establish- 
ment of  three  magistrates  instead  of  five.  There  arose 
against  him  very  unjust  complaints.  The  general  had  given 
his  advice  and  obeyed  a  contrary  order.  An  individual,  con- 
sulted by  a  free  people,  might,  and  ought  to  have  given  that 
council  which  appeared  to  him  to  be  the  best.  Napoleon, 
after  the  18th  Brumaire,  in  speaking  to  me  of  the  three  con- 
suls and  their  relative  powers,  recalled  to  his  memory  the 
laws  he  had  given  at  Genoa. 

"  The  directory,"  said  he,  "  instead  of  complaining  of  my 
conduct,  ought  to  have  profited  by  it:  my  opinion  and  my 
example  proved  my  sincere  desire  to  serve  them.  It  was  in 
vain  that  1  showed  them  the  route  that  they  should  have 
followed.  By  concentrating,  they  might  have  maintained 
themselves.  At  that  period  three  magistrates,  equal  in  power, 
were  probably  capable  of  governing  well ;  but  now,  after  all 
our  reverses,  that  concentration  is  no  longer  sufficient.  Of 
the  three  consuls  to  be  established,  one  alone  ought  to  have 
the  power,  or  we  shall  have  nothing  permanent." 

In  recalling  this  anecdote  of  Brumaire,  1  do  not  in  the  least 
mean  to  prejudice  a  question  that  we  are  to  discuss  hereafter. 
I  cited  it  here  only  to  show  that  Napoleon  before  his  depar- 
ture desired  the  consolidation  of  the  directory,  and  that  it 
did  not  depend  upon  him  that  the  government  did  not  fortify 
itself  after  the  example  of  the  Italian  republics. 

Upon  his  return  to  Paris,  Napoleon,  brought  into  contact 
with  the  executive  power  of  five  persons,  tossed  amid  the 
factions,  and  swung  from  one  side  to  the  other,  became  dis- 
gusted. I  never  knew  of  the  project,  which  several  writers 
have  attributed  to  my  brother,  of  entering  the  directory  on 
having  a  dispensation  of  improper  age  granted  to  him;  it 
might  have  been  mentioned  to  him,  but  he  never  attached 
any  importance  to  it.  Far  from  wishing  to  become  a  part  of 
the  directory,  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  withdraw  from  it. 
The  East,  that  country  of  great  renown,  charmed  his  imag- 
ination; he  projected,  obtained,  and  prepared  the  expedition 
to  Egypt.  He  wished  me  to  accompany  him  ;  but  the  elec- 
tions of  the  year  6  approached,  and  I  preferred  being  a  can- 
didate for  the  deputation.  The  expedition  to  Egypt  sailed 
from  Toulon.  That  mysterious  expedition  revealed  itself  by 
the  taking  of  Malta,  while  I  traversed  France  in  order  to  take 
my  seat  at  the  council  of  five  hundred,  to  which  1  had  been 
unanimously  named.  1  was  struck,  during  my  journey,  at  the 
diversity  of  opinions  among  public  men,  upon  the  departure 
of  Napoleon.  Some,  already  seduced  by  the  news  from 
Malta,  were  in  ecstasies  at  his  departure,  and  presaged  such 
successes,  that  should  even  efface  the  prodigies  of  Italy. 
Others  accused  the  directory  of  perfidy.    "  The  lawyers  said 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  47 

they  wanted  to  get  rid  of  a  hero,  who  had  suffered  himself  to 
be  duped  by  them"  But  the  greatest  number  appeared  to 
me  to  disapprove  of  the  absence  of  the  general,  and  of  so  fine 
an  army.  I  strongly  partook  of  that  last  opinion,  which  the 
change  in  our  military  affairs  soon  rendered  universal.  But 
't  was  to  the  government,  far  more  than  to  the  general,  that 
those  reproaches  ought  to  have  been  addressed.  I  vvill  not 
deny  that  an  immense  ambition  of  glory,  the  most  noble  of 
all  egotism,  had  not  greatly  influenced  the  determination  of 
Napoleon.  A  victorious  career,  upon  the  traces  of  Alexander 
and  Caesar,  must  have  inspired  his  soul ;  that  brilliant  per- 
sonal future  might  even  have  dazzled  him,  and  overcome  the 
present  interest  of  his  country — but  he  did  not  leave  France 
without  renowned  generals  ;  and  he  took  with  him  only  thirty 
thousand  men.  It  would  have  been,  on  his  part,  too  great  an 
excess  of  vanity,  to  have  supposed  that  his  presence  was 
indispensable  for  the  public  security.  The  political  horizon 
presented  at  that  moment  but  very  feeble  presages  of  a  new 
tempest.  England  alone  was  in  arms  against  us;  and  Egypt 
was  the  point  where  England  was  the  most  vulnerable — 
Egypt,  the  advanced  post  of  war  and  commerce  towards  In- 
dia— post  of  watchfulness  towards  the  Bosphorus.  A  con- 
queror was  very  justifiable  in  shutting  his  eyes  upon  every 
other  consideration  to  spring  towards  that  Egypt,  the  pos- 
session of  which  assured  to  France — promised  the  abasement, 
more  distant  but  certain,  of  London  and  St.  Petersburg. 
And  what  weight  should  we  not,  in  fact,  place  in  the  political 
balance,  if  Egypt  could  have  remained  ours,  if  one  of  our  old 
marshals  was  now  in  the  place  of  the  great  viceroy ;  if  the 
valiant  Clauzel,  instead  of  triumphing  over  the  Arabs  of  Atlas, 
was  encamped  with  his  army  upon  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
already  become  one  of  our  rivers?  .  .  .  For  so  great  a  result, 
all  our  sacrifices,  and  perhaps  even  the  disasters  of  Aboukir, 
would  not  have  been  too  dearly  bought. 

But  that  dazzling  perspective,  so  natural,  so  noble,  so  heroic 
for  Napoleon,  to  whom  repose  was  a  burden,  completely 
changed  its  aspect,  when  taken  in  a  point  of  view  with  re- 
spect to  the  government.  The  duty  of  the  directory  was  to 
devote  itself  to  the  certain,  and  cooly  calculated,  present 
interest  of  the  republic.  It  was  a  part  of  its  responsibility 
to  moderate  the  ardour  of  our  heroes,  and  to  direct  instead 
of  following  them  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  battle  field,  or 
with  the  weakne;-G  of  an  uneasy  and  subdued  magistracy. 
For  the  chiefs  of  a  republic,  weakness  or  enthusiasm  are 
equally  criminal— the  slumber  or  intoxication  of  a  pilot 
places  the  ship  equally  in  danger.  The  directory  had  studied 
that  great  question  under  every  aspect.  Several  of  its  mem- 
bers had  at  first  opposed  it ;  they  had  felt  that  after  the 
peace  of  Campo  Formio,  the  events  at  Rome  and  in  Swit- 
zerland had  offered  pretexts  sufficiently  plausible  for  the  ill 


48  MEMOIRS    OP 

humour  of  Austria.  They  thought  and  said  with  reason, 
that  the  projected  expedition  would  draw  upon  us  a  war  with 
Turkey,  and  that  in  giving  us  a  new  enemy,  we  should  awa- 
ken the  ancient :  that  it  secured  the  English  ascendency  at 
Constantinople.  And  thus,  in  raising  these  perils,  it  threw 
far  distant  from  the  land  of  France,  the  first  of  our  generals, 
and  thirty  thousand  chosen  men,  and  delivered  over  our 
marine  to  perilous  chances.  All  these  considerations  were 
developed  and  patriotically  sustained  by  the  director  La  Re- 
veillere.  ...  And  as  they  did  not  produce  any  effect,  the  gov- 
ernment was  left  without  excuse.  But  the  assertions  of  M. 
de  Montgaillard,  and  of  those  who  have  followed  him,  are 
contrary  to  truth,  when  they  attribute  the  project  of  the  ex- 
pedition to  Egypt,  to  the  desire  of  removing,  at  any  price, 
the  victorious  general.  Far  different  is  the  jealousy  and  in- 
quietude which  one,  subordinate  to  them  yet  so  powerful, 
could  excite  from  the  criminal  resolution  of  depriving  the 
country  of  thirty  thousand  warriors  to  rid  themselves  of  a 
rival.  On  the  contrary,  they  only  yielded  to  Napoleon. 
The  fault  of  the  government  was  weakness ;  and  that  fault 
was  sufficiently  weighty  for  the  chiefs  of  a  republic,  with- 
out attributing  to  them  an  imaginary  plot.  Since  the  coup 
d'etat  of  18th  Fructidor,  the  directory  had  gained  strength  at 
the  expense  of  the  legislative  body  ;  but  soon  that  strength 
began  to  decay.  The  expedition  to  Egypt  appeared  to  have 
marked  the  end  of  its  bright  days.  Scarcely  arrived  in  the 
chamber  of  representatives,  1  assisted  only  at  the  fall  of  the 
directory.  Here  begins  my  legislative  functions,  and  I  must 
pass  lightly  over  acts  in  which  I  concurred.  1  fear  that  my 
opinions,  my  votes,  and  my  discourses,  may  not  always  be 
worthy  to  fix  the  attention  of  my  readers — but  I  must  give 
them,  such  as  they  were.  I  cannot  pass  them  over  in  si- 
lence, since  I  write  the  memoirs  of  my  public  life. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  49 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    DIRECTORY    TILL    THE    REVOLUTION    OF    BRUMAIRE. 


'  Get  esprit  d'imprudence  et  d'erreur, 
De  la  chute  des  Rois  I'uneste  avant-coureur." — Racine. 


The  Powers — The  Allied  Republics — The  Armies — The  Interior. 

Upon  my  entry  into  the  council  I  was  welcomed  with  a 
favour  entirely  due  to  the  enthusiasm  which  they  felt  for 
Napoleon.  Joseph,  our  eldest  brother,  admitted  since  the 
preceding  election,  possessed  the  esteem  and  friendship  of 
his  colleagues.  They  endeavoured  to  raise  some  doubts 
upon  my  election;  but  the  assembly,  supreme  judge  without 
appeal,  pronounced  it  to  be  valid. 

I  passed  the  first  months  without  taking  a  decided  part 
in  the  council.  Animated  by  a  sincere  republicanism,  I 
thought  to  keep  my  individual  independence  among  the  dif- 
ferent parties,  not  daring  to  approach  that  formidable  tribune, 
however  much  I  might  have  desired  it.  I  listened  atten- 
tively, and  I  prided  myself  upon  voting  for  them  by  turns, 
one  after  the  other,  with  the  directorials,  or  with  the  oppo- 
sition, according  as  they  appeared  to  me  to  be  right.  There 
were  no  longer  any  royalists  in  the  chambers  on  the  ISth 
Fructidor ;  they  had  been  so  completely  overwhelmed,  that, 
during  eighteen  months,  they  had  not  regained  courage. 
The  directorial  party  appeared  to  me  at  that  time  to  be  the 
most  reasonable.  Why  not  aid  the  government  at  the  mo- 
ment, above  all,  when  the  nullity  of  the  congress  of  Rastadt 
made  them  fear  the  renewal  of  hostilities  T 

The  establishment  of  our  armies  by  the  departure  of  Na- 
poleon, was  another  motive  for  us  not  to  weaken  ourselves 
still  more  by  discord.  The  majority  of  the  legislators  saw 
how  much  union  was  necessary,  and,  though  they  con- 
demned the  conduct  of  the  executive  power,  they  lent  it 
their  assistance.  The  opposition  was  composed  of  the  Ja- 
cobin party,  and  of  the  personal  enemies  of  the  directors. 
These  last  called  themselves  the  only  constitutionalists, 
with  as  little  reason  as  the  Jacobins  called  themselves  the 
only  patriots.  Before  we  enter  further  upon  this  subject, 
we  will  declare  that  this  name  of  Jacobins,  wiiich  was  given 
to  the  most  violent  portion  of  the  opposition,  no  longer  sig- 

E 


60  MEMOIRS    OF 

nified,  as  it  had  done  formerly,  men  of  disorder  and  blood. 
The  illustrious  General  Jourdan  was  among  the  number,  and 
all  idea  of  crime  must  be  effaced  when  we  speak  of  the  Ja- 
cobins of  that  epoch.  They  abhorred  the  scaffolds  of  1793 
as  much  as  we  did ;  but  they  were  always  faithful  to  the 
conventional  doctrines.  They  reproached  the  government 
for  not  having  sufficiently  profited  by  the  victory  of  Fructi- 
dor  :  they  saw  no  remedy  for  all  the  evils  but  in  the  omnip- 
otence of  their  party,  and  in  the  usual  measures  of  the  pro- 
paganda, the  conscription,  forced  loans,  political  clubs,  and 
terror.  The  soi-disant  constitutionalists  found,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  directorial  system  sufficient,  and  condemned  only 
the  directors,  of  whom  they  thought  they  had  reason  to 
complain,  either  right  or  wrong.  A  change  of  persons  ap- 
peared to  them  a  remedy  for  their  present  situation ;  and 
among  them  was  pronounced,  with  regret,  the  name  of 
Sieyes,  whose  embassy  to  Berlin  was  considered  as  an  hon- 
ourable exile.  That  illustrious  name,  as  M.  Thiers  very 
justly  observes,  was  at  that  time  the  second  in  the  republic. 

That  historian  is  less  true,  when,  in  speaking  of  me,  he 
says,  "  Lucien  had  ranged  himself  in  the  constitutional  op- 
position, not  that  he  had  any  subject  of  personal  discontent, 
but  he  imitated  his  brother,  and  assumed  the  part  of  censor 
of  the  government.  It  was  the  attitude  best  suited  for  a 
family  desirous  of  forming  a  party  of  their  own." 

That  conjecture  is  an  error.  Not  only  I  had  no  reason 
to  complain  of  the  directory,  but  the  connexions  of  my 
brothers  with  Barras,  to  whom  I  owed  my  deliverance  from 
the  prisons  of  Aix,  had  drawn  me  to  the  Luxembourg, 
where  I  was  very  well  received.  I  had  every  reason  to 
praise  Barras,  Rewbell,  La  Reveillere,  Merlin,  and  Freil- 
hard.  I  did  not,  therefore,  seek  to  set  myself  up  as  censor. 
I  did  not  enter  into  any  systematic  opposition.  My  first 
votes  were  most  frequently  favourable  to  the  government ; 
and  no  personal  consideration  influenced  my  conduct. 

But,  in  a  few  months  after  my  admission  to  the  council, 
it  was  no  longer  possible  to  support  the  directory  ;  not  only 
fortune  was  adverse  to  it,  but  its  inconsistency,  its  weak- 
ness, its  incapacity,  no  longer  admitted  of  excuse.  The  in- 
dulgence with  which  M.  Thiers  judges  the  directors,  may 
be  applied  to  their  intentions,  but  not  in  any  way  to  their 
condi'ct.  After  having  deprived  themselves  of  their  great- 
est strength,  they  provoked,  by  their  mad  audacity,  the  war 
which  at  least  they  ought  to  have  retarded  until  our  prepar- 
ations were  completed.  They  had  united  Geneva  and  Mul- 
hausen  to  France.  They  had  a  second  time  revolutionized 
Holland.  They  troubled  Switzerland,  for  fear,  without 
doubt,  of  keeping  a  single  ally  for  France.  In  one  word, 
that  unfortunate  government  appeared  struck  with  a  vertigo. 
To  complete  their  imprudence,  they  endeavoured  to  disor- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  51 

ganize  the  Cisalpine  republic,  the  principal  work  of  Napole- 
on in  Italy.  It  was  then  only  that  my  brother  Joseph  and 
myself  declared  for  the  opposition,  being  persuaded  that  the 
executive  power,  composed  as  it  was  at  that  time,  left  no 
hope  to  the  republic. 

It  was  in  the  beginning  of  Fructidor,  three  months  after 
my  entering  into  the  legislative  body,  that  I  for  the  first 
time  attacked  the  government  upon  the  subject  of  the  Cis- 
alpine repubhc.  During  those  first  three  months,  I  had  only 
appeared  at  the  tribune  to  combat  the  forced  observance  of 
the  Decadis  ;(4)  to  disapprove  of  the  re-enactment  of  the 
tax  Upon  salt  ;(5)  and  to  make  two  reports  :  the  first  rela- 
tive to  the  pensions  due  to  the  widows  and  children  of  the 
defenders  of  the  country.  (6)  And  the  second  upon  the  di- 
lapidations. (7)  In  this  last  report  only  can  be  found  the  tone 
of  an  opposition,  which  was  beginning  to  become  violent. 
Without  stopping  at  these  objects  of  little  importance,  it 
will  be  sufficient  to  insert  in  the  Notes  the  discourses  which 
refer  to  them.  But  I  do  not  think  that  in  future  I  ought  to 
content  myself  with  so  rapid  an  analysis  as  that  which  I 
have  hitherto  employed.  It  may  have  sufficed  for  that 
which  I  did  not  see  myself;  but  with  respect  to  the  affairs 
in  which  I  have  taken  a  part,  I  shall  prefer  giving  a  monthly 
summary  of  my  proceedings,  to  which  I  will  add  my  obser- 
vations.    I  was  elected  secretary  of  the  coujicil. 


Month  of  Fructidor,  year  6.     Fro7)i  the  ISth  of  August  to  the 

\lth  of  September,  1798. 

Complaints  of  Switzerland  and  Italy— My  motion  of  order  for  the  Cisal- 
pine Republic— Reflections  upon'  that  motion — A  Constitution  once 
violated  no  longer  exists  in  principle— Political  oaths— False  applica- 
tion of  the  word  Aristocrat — The  powers. 

The  treaty  of  Campo  Formio  had  stipulated  that  there 
should  not  be  any  changes  made  in  Italy  but  with  general 
consent.  Had  we  faithfully  kept  to  that  condition?  .  .  . 
Since  that  treaty  we  had  entered  Turin,  of  which  we  oc- 
cupied the  fortress.  The  king,  our  ally,  had  retired  to  Sar- 
dinia; he  had  only  the  shadow  of  authority  left  to  him  upon 
the  continent.  Our  republican  principles  had  raised  the 
whole  of  Piedmont;  if  we  had  not  excited  them,  we  had  at 
least  profited  by  them,  without  the  concurrence  of  Austria. 
That  power  had,  therefore,  a  just  cause  of  complaint.  At 
all  times  the  invasion  of  a  kingdom  is  a  legitimate  motive 
for  the  renewal  of  a  war.  If  history  is  not  impartial,  it  is 
no  longer  any  thing  but  a  source  of  error.  We  certainly 
were  not  to  oppose  a  neighbouring  people  imitating  our  ex- 


52  MEMOIRS    OF 

ample,  but  the  introduction  of  our  troops  into  their  fortress- 
es was  committing  a  decided  act  of  hostility  against  Aus- 
tria ;  and  it  was  with  an  ill  grace  that  we  afterward  com- 
plained of  the  obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  negotia- 
tions of  Rastadt.  Neither  did  the  taking  possession  of  Mul- 
hausen  afford  any  proofs  in  favour  of  our  moderation.  The 
directory  had  recently  united  them  to  France  ! — As  for  the 
Roman  government,  it  could  not  justify  its  culpable  indo- 
lence in  the  fanatical  insurrection  which  cost  the  life  of  the 
brave  General  Duphot,  and  in  which  the  life  of  the  intrepid 
ambassador  (Joseph  Bonaparte)  had  been  menaced,  and  his 
residence  basely  violated  ;  we  were  justly  entitled  to  a  sig- 
nal vengeance.  .  .  .  But  was  there  absolutely  no  other 
reparation  possible  than  the  overthrow  of  the  temporal  au- 
thority of  the  pope  1  That  temporal  authority  is  useful, 
necessary,  indispensable,  for  the  independent  exercise  of 
the  spiritual  authority  of  the  see  of  Rome  over  all  the  Cath- 
olics in  the  universe.  The  immense  majority  of  the  French 
people  professing  the  Roman  Cathohc  religion,  could  not 
fail  lamenting,  from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  the  desola- 
tion of  the  Holy  See.  Still  greater  reason  had  Austria  to 
resent,  as  a  Catholic  and  neighbouring  power,  the  new  in- 
fraction of  the  treaty  of  Campo  Formio.  The  kingdom  of 
Naples  had  never  dissembled  its  hatred  against  France  ;  but 
the  establishment  of  the  Roman  republic  furnished  it  with  a 
plausible  pretext.  Thus  Naples  and  Austria  were  provoked 
by  the  changes  that  had  been  made  in  Italy. 

Russia,  discontented,  threatened  ;  Paul  I.  had  taken  the 
order  of  Malta  under  his  protection  ;  and  we  did  nothing  to 
retard  or  ward  off  the  attacks  of  this  new  enemy.  The  di- 
rectory kept  the  citizen  Talleyrand  at  Paris,  instead  of 
sending  him  to  Constantinople,  according  to  the  promise 
made  to  my  brother.  If  the  mission  of  that  skilful  diploma- 
tist had  only  succeeded  in  retarding  for  some  weeks  the 
hostilities  of  the  Porte,  the  result  would  have  been  im- 
portant ;  but  directly  upon  the  departure  of  the  fleet,  the  di- 
rectory had  forgotten  its  promise. 

England  was  fully  sensible  of  all  the  evils  that  the 
French  expedition  might  cause.  The  newspapers  were 
filled  with  alarming  conjectures.  Was  it  towards  Egypt,  or 
towards  India,  that  our  army  was  directed  1  In  all  cases  it 
threatened  the  British  interest  with  the  greatest  dangers. 
About  the  same  time,  fifteen  hundred  of  our  brave  fellows, 
under  General  Humbert,  had  landed  in  Ireland,  where  the 
discontented  population  hastened  to  join  our  standard. 
What  motives  for  our  great  enemies  to  redouble  their  ef- 
forts, and  to  endeavour  to  renew  a  coalition  with  the  kings 
of  the  continent!  To  attack  us  was  to  defend  itself.  Noth- 
ing, therefore,  was  neglected.  Every  day  they  approached 
towards  their  object  at  St.  Petersburgh  and  Vienna. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  6'3 

Berlin  alone  still  resisted.  The  illustrious  Sieyes  had  ac- 
cepted that  embassy,  where  his  influence  fortunately  bal- 
anced the  solicitations  of  the  Count  de  Cobentsell  and  the 
Prince  Repnin.  Sieyes  absents  himself  willingly  from  Par- 
is;  he  had  never  approved  of  the  constitution  of  the  year 
3,  which  appeared  to  him  to  be  insufficient.  His  foresight 
had  preceded,  by  two  years,  the  opinion  of  everybody. 
He  had  refused  to  enter  the  directory  ;  and  ahnost  universal 
regrets  had  followed  him  to  Berlin,  the  only  capital  in 
which,  since  his  presence  there,  our  directory  had  tri- 
umphed. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  powers.  If  the  strange  politics 
of  our  government  did  nothing  to  quiet  our  enemies,  it  had 
in  requital  turned  with  impetuosity  against  our  own  allies. 
A  rage  for  directorial  propagandisni  had  laken  possession  of 
our  chiefs.  They  wanted  to  reduce  every  thing  to  their 
own  resemblance :  their  commissaries,  their  acts  of  author- 
ity, their  ambassadors,  carried  trouble  into  the  neighbour- 
ing republics,  which,  scarcely  born,  were  certainly  not  in 
want  of  those  interior  convulsions. 

THE   ALLIED   REPUBLICS. 

The  nearest  to  us,  the  Helvetic  republic,  was  so  much 
exasperated,  that  her  minister  plenipotentiary,  Zeltner,  ad- 
dressed to  the  directory  the  following  note,  a  piece  remark- 
able for  its  bitter  censure,  very  slightly  covered  with  some 
diplomatic  compliments.  That  note,  an  act  of  real  accusa- 
tion against  the  French  directory,  after  having  enumerated 
the  injuries  of  Switzerland,  ended  thus: — 

"  The  consequences  are  much  to  be  dreaded  of  a  con- 
duct so  revolting  towards  a  people  who  never  suffer  them- 
selves to  be  diverted  by  pleasures,  nor  intimidated  by  force, 
and  who  are  only  to  be  gained  by  kindness.  It  is  very  im- 
politic, instead  of  endeavouring  to  become  better  acquainted 
with  the  character  of  the  people,  the  maintaining  towards 
them  the  same  conduct  as  if  they  possessed  the  happy  light- 
ness with  vv'hich  the  French  adopt  novelties,  or  the  apathy  of 
the  Batavians,  or  the  docile  pliability  of  the  Italians.  These 
irritable  and  courageous  people  are  zealously  attached  to 
their  religion,  their  pure  democracy,  and  ancient  morals. 
Whatever  bears  the  stamp  of  infidehty  or  oppression,  fills 
them  with  bitterness  and  indignation.  When  there  is  no 
longer  any  thing  to  be  lost,  when  animated  by  despair, 
they  become  capable  of  every  excess,  and  Helvetia  may 
become  the  theatre  of  scenes  more  horrible  than  those  of 
La  Vendee. 

"  The  undersigned  shudders  while  holding  this  language, 
but  it  is  that  which  it  is  his  duty  to  hold.  Not  to  make 
known  to  the  French  directory  the  whole  undisguised  truth, 

E  3 


64  MEMOIRS    OP 

would  be  a  crime.  Already  have  the  Orisons  retreated 
from  us  at  the  news  of  the  deplorable  state  in  which  Swit- 
zerland finds  itself.  They  prefer  the  yoke,  which  once  in- 
spired them  only  with  horror.  The  fetters  of  the  Tyrol  are 
forged  anew.  Suabia,  ready  to  embrace  a  system  of  liber- 
ty, repels  it  far  from  her.  Those  who,  not  long  since,  had 
sworn  to  propagate,  now  swear  to  oppose  it  with  all  their 
strength  ;  and  the  neighbours  of  Helvetia  reject  with  af- 
fright fruits  which  to  them  appear  to  be  poisoned. 

"  The  real  republicans  of  Helvetia  will  be  the  first  vic- 
tims of  so  great  a  disorder.  The  towns,  the  only  support- 
ers, the  only  asylums  of  the  new  order  of  things,  will  be 
delivered  over  to  the  fury  of  the  country-people,  who 
accuse  them  of  being  the  cause  of  their  misfortunes  in 
giving  the  first  impulse  to  the  revolution.  It  is  upon  them 
that  will  fall  the  first  excesses  of  their  blind  rage.  All  Eu- 
rope will  resound  with  their  fatal  prognostics. 

"  The  English  think  they  have  escaped  from  the  anger  of 
the  great  nation,  because  she  permits  useful  neighbours  to 
destroy  one  another,  and  precious  advantages  to  pass  into 
the  hands  of  her  enemies.  For  the  localities,  history,  every 
thing  proves  the  importance  of  such  a  neighbourhood; 
every  thing  excites  the  enemies  of  the  French  nation  to  at- 
tach themselves  to  a  brave  and  estimable  people,  who  now 
inspire,  and  must  for  ever  inspire,  a  universal  interest. 

"  Citizen  directors,  you  who  decide  with  as  much  felicity 
as  glory  the  fate  of  nations,  calm,  v/hile  there  is  yet  time — 
calm  the  intestine  tumult  of  the  Swiss  people.  You  have 
the  power.  The  memory  of  the  past,  actual  suff'erings,  all 
concur  to  agitate  them.  Let  then  your  wisdom  obviate  the 
extreme  misfortunes  which  may  become  inevitable.  Fulfil 
the  wishes  of  the  Helvetian  people,  in  the  name  of  humani- 
ty, of  liberty,  and  equality,  presented  to  you  by  their  or- 
gan, the  undersigned.  Thenceforth  the  remembrance  of 
your  bounties  will  constantly  be  as  dear  to  them,  as  they 
M^ill  glory  in  forming  a  strict  indissoluble  alliance  with  the 
first  people  upon  the  earth. 

"  To  that  eff'ect  the  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  Helve- 
tian republic  demands : — 

"  1st.  That  funds  of  all  descriptions  which  have  been  se- 
questrated, or  that  have  been  carried  away  from  the  Helve- 
tian nation,  shall  be  remitted  to  the  new  government,  in 
order  that  it  may  be  in  a  state  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
revolution ;  of  organizing  an  armed  force,  that  will  render 
the  Helvetian  republic  worthy  of  an  alliance  with  tbe 
French  repubhc,  to  pay  for  objects  of  pecuniary  necessity 
which  France  can  furnish  to  Switzerland,  such  as  grain, 
salt,  &c. 

"  2d.  Tliat  divers  parts  of  Helvetia,  charged  with  contri- 
butions, shall  be  exempted. 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  55 

"  3d.  That  the  artillery,  the  arms,  the  magazines,  and  in 
general  all  the  effects  taken  from  the  Helvetian  nation, 
shall  be  returned  into  the  hands  of  the  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. 

"  4th.  That  the  number  of  French  troops  in  Switzerland, 
the  cavalry  above  all,  shall  be  reduced  to  what  is  absolutely 
necessary,  and  that  those  troops  shall  go  av/ay  entirely  as 
soon  as  possible. 

"  5th.  That  the  constitutional  government  of  the  Helve- 
tian republic  shall  be  favoured  by  every  possible  means  in 
the  exercise  of  her  authority,  and  for  that  end  it  must  be 
ordained : — 

"  That  the  agents  of  the  French  republic  in  Helvetia 
shall  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  directory  of  that 
power,  upon  all  the  objects  which  it  concerns,  acting  only  in 
its  name  with  its  consent,  and  in  observing  all  the  respect 
which  is  due  to  it. 

"  That  the  French  troops  which  remain  in  Helvetia  shall 
be  only  auxiliary  troops ;  that,  far  from  being  any  impedi- 
ment in  the  acts  of  the  government,  they  shall  assist  it  and 
lend  it  their  support,  in  case  of  necessity,  every  time  they 
shall  be  required  to  do  so. 

"  That  the  advantages  accorded  to  the  canton  of  Berne, 
relative  to  the  maintenance  of  the  troops,  shall  be  extended 
throughout  Helvetia. 

(Signed,)  "  ZELTNER." 

This  bold  claim  of  the  Helvetian  minister  was  not  with- 
out some  success.  Mutual  concessions  were  made  about 
the  end  of  the  month.  A  treaty  of  alliance  and  a  treaty  of 
commerce  were  signed ;  but  the  substantial  complaints 
were  not  silenced.  The  French  agents  continued  to  tyran- 
nise over  and  to  despoil  Switzerland,  who,  on  her  side, 
supported  with  impatience  the  yoke  of  her  pretended  lib- 
erators. 

Holland  was  not  recovered  from  her  interior  revolution, 
that  the  General  Dandaels  had  effected  in  the  preceding 
month  of  June,  thanks  to  the  aid  of  the  French  General 
Joubert.  The  Batavian  directory  had  been  attacked  and 
dissolved  by  the  French  influence.  The  directors,  and  a 
part  of  its  deputies,  had  been  rendered  destitute.  That 
Batavian  revolution  had  this  peculiarity,  that  the  ambassa- 
dor and  the  general  of  our  troops  acted  in  opposition  to 
.  each  other.  Our  allies  were  not  edified  by  such  a  disunion, 
which  might  have  prolonged  the  struggle  ;  but  the  party 
of  Dandaels  and  Joubert  having  obtained  the  ascendency, 
the  ambassador,  Charles  Lacroix,  returned  to  Paris,  where 
his  complaints  were  unavailing  ;  they  served  only  to  lessen 
the  consideration  of  the  French  directory  in  the  eyes  of  the 
opposition,     Holland,  after  that  epoch,  beheld  the  parties 


56  MEMOIRS    01* 

more  exulting  than  ever  :  some  bore  upon  their  cockades,  as 
a  rallying  sign,  the  inscription,  "  22g?  Jan.,  1798;"  and 
others,  the  words  "  Disarmed  of  the  23d  of  June.''''  The  dis- 
orders in  Holland  could  not  reasonably  be  wholly  attributed 
to  the  French  government,  but  it  had  contributed  to  them 
by  its  violence  and  unskilfulness  ;  and,  thanks  to  that  state 
of  discord,  the  Batavian  republic  was  a  greater  expense 
than  benefit  to  us. 

Genoa  had  also  had  her  directorial  crisis  there,  as  in  Hol- 
land. It  was  the  power  of  France  which  decided  the  vic- 
tory between  the  tv/o  parties ;  but  on  this  occasion  our 
minister  and  our  general  entirely  agreed  in  opinion.  The 
citizen  Belleville  sent  for  to  his  house,  without  further  for- 
malities, a  part  of  the  Genoese  legislative  body,  and  made 
them  sign,  in  his  office,  the  dismission  of  all  tlie  Genoese 
representatives  of  the  people,  who  from  that  day  became 
the  enemies  of  France. 

The  republic  of  the  capital  existed  but  in  name.  The  en- 
tire authority  was  exercised  by  a  French  commission.  The 
consuls  of  the  Roman  people  had  scarcely  any  other  func- 
tions than  to  superintend  the  packing  up  for  France,  the 
chefs  d'oeuvre  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  to  press  the  pay- 
ment of  the  enormous  tributes  imposed  upon  the  patrician 
families  to  the  amount  of  nine  or  ten  millions,  and  to  repeat, 
with  the  ridiculous  style  of  sovereignty,  the  French  edicts, 
which  drove  from  the  capital  of  Catholicism  and  the  arts  the 
foreigners  who  had  taken  refuge  as  in  a  port  open  to  all  in 
adversity.  Rome,  deprived  of  her  pontiff,  without  foreign 
admirers,  was  by  her  own  consuls  aiding  to  despoil  herself 
of  her  treasures  of  every  sort.  Was  it  possible  that  Rome 
could  entertain  any  sincere  wishes  for  France  ] 

The  most  powerful  of  the  allied  republics,  the  Cisalpine 
republic,  will  that  at  least  be  spared  by  the  directorial  pro- 
pagande  ! — Will  that  escape  our  commissaries,  prodigal  of 
their  despotic  counsels,  constitutional  levellers,  popilius- 
professo's,  who  trace  with  the  point  of  their  sword  the  le- 
gislative lessons,  by  enclosing  the  people  in  a  fatal  circle  ? 
....  Far  from  forgetting  Lombardy,  it  was  there  that  the 
wisdom  of  the  directors,  finding  all  of  a  sudden  that  what 
they  had  done  with  Napoleon  was  detestable,  endeavoured 
to  defeat  it.  It  seemed  as  if  they  felt  happy  in  being  able 
at  last  to  command  in  that  Lombardy  which  had  remained 
closed  against  their  caprices,  so  long  as  the  reins  were  held 
by  a  firm  and  skilful  hand.  They  usurped  the  constituent 
power,  and  confided  the  exercise  of  it  to  their  ambassador, 
Trouve.     Trouve  went  to  correct  Napoleon ! 

Scarcely  had  the  diplomatic  reformer  given  notice  of  his 
constituent  mission,  ere  a  profound  agitation  manifested 
itself.  Numerous  pamphlets  revealed  the  public  opinion. 
"  It  is  a  triumvirate,"  said  they  in  those  pamphlets,  "  a  tri- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  57 

umvirate,  citizen  ambassador,  that  you  are  preparing  for  us. 
After  having  reduced  the  members  of  the  Cisalpine  direct- 
ory to  three,  you  will,  upon  the  pretext  of  economy,  sup- 
press the  half  of  our  legislative  body  ! — Ah,  let  us  double 
the  expense  if  it  is  necessary ;  but  let  us  preserve  that  lib- 
erty which  was  given  to  us  by  a  hero.  You  want  to  en- 
feeble our  legislative  body,  to  subject  it  to  your  triumvirate  ! 
— No,  never  ;  our  constitution  is  our  wealth  :  we  will  defend 
it.  When  we  want  to  reform  it,  it  will  be  for  the  Cisalpine 
people  to  do  it,  and  not  a  foreign  ambassador.  We  shall 
know,  citizens,  soldiers,  legislators,  and  magistrates,  we 
shall  all  know  how  to  defend  our  independence." 

The  Milanese  government,  no  longer  able  to  doubt  the 
projects  of  the  minister  Trouve,  sent  directly  the  General 
Lahoz  to  Paris  as  ambassador  extraordinary.  That  general 
demanded  to  be  presented  to  the  directory.  He  wrote  as 
follows  to  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs  :  "  My  mission  is 
urgent ;  the  question  is  to  baffle  an  odious  conspiracy 
against  the  Cisalpine  constitution,  and  to  know  the  opinion 
of  the  French  government  upon  a  handful  of  factious  men 
who  assemble  at  the  ambassador  Trouve's,  and  who  take 
upon  themselves  the  right  of  making  innovations  among  us 
which  we  do  not  desire." 

The  General  Lahoz  requested  the  intervention  of  the  two 
brothers  of  the  founder  of  the  Milanese  republic.  We  un- 
dertook willingly,  but  in  vain,  to  interest  ourselves  in  his 
favour.  We  saw  all  the  directors  :  w^e  spoke  of  the  painful 
impression  that  a  change  in  the  Italian  constitution  would 
cause  to  Napoleon.  One  of  the  directors  (Barras)  silenced 
us  upon  that  point  by  replying,  "  As  for  your  brother,  if  we 
had  followed  his  advice,  the  dispositions  that  we  are  about 
to  take  would  have  made  a  part  of  the  first  organization. 
Have  you  forgotten  that  the  general  insisted  for  a  long  time 
that  there  should  be  only  three  directors  at  Milan ;  and  that 
he  only  estabhshed  five  in  consequence  of  our  positive  or- 
ders, and  much  against  his  will  ? — Well  I  we  will  return  to 
his  first  advice.  No  one  has  less  to  complain  of  than  he 
has."  That  recrimination  was  not  very  easy  to  repel,  if 
they  neglected  to  take  advantage  that  the  actual  moment 
was  unfavourable  for  those  reforms  rejected  by  thQ  Italians, 
and  the  inconvenience  of  the  despotic  mode  employed  to 
effect  those  reforms.  Their  value  in  themselves  was  con- 
formable with  what  Napoleon  had  done  at  Genoa,  and  what 
he  wanted  to  do  at  Milan.  The  reply  of  Barras  was  there- 
fore conclusive  with  regard  to  Napoleon,  and  only  offended 
me  still  more.  I  replied  therefore  with  warmth  : — "  If  you 
tliink  ihey  can  overturn  the  directory  at  Milan,  why  may 
they  not  overturn  the  directory  at  Paris  V  And  after  that 
menace,  I  left  the  Luxembourg.  It  was  the  last  time  I  saw 
Barras.    The  complaints  of  our  allies  had  resounded  in  the 


68  MEMOJRS    OF 

councils ;  those  of  Italy,  above  all,  had  raised  sympathies 
which  menaced  the  directory.  Far  from  seeking  to  appease 
them,  they  endeavoured  to  brave  them.  They  had  refused 
to  hear  the  demands  of  the  General  Lahoz.  Not  only  they 
would  not  grant  him  an  audience,  but  they  sent  him  an  order 
to  quit  Paris.  The  general,  informed  that  I  intended  occu- 
pying the  council  with  his  mission  and  his  dismission,  sus- 
pended his  departure  for  twenty- four  hours.  As  soon  as  the 
sitting  was  over,  I  demanded  a  hearing  for  a  motion  of  or- 
der, and  pronounced  the  following  discourse : — 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,  depositaries  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  year  3 — It  is  to  you  that  I  address  myself. 
Fame  has  pubhshed  that  innovations  are  intended  in  the 
constitution  of  a  republic  and  ally  who  rejects  them  in  vain. 
From  the  shores  of  the  Eridan  to  the  banks  of  the  Seine, 
the  friends  of  liberty  are  in  alarm.  A  longer  silence  on  our 
part  would  redouble  their  inquietudes,  and  dishonour  us.  I 
am  come  then  to  call  your  attention  to  those  innovations, 
prepared  by  men  who  cannot  have  for  that  purpose  either 
mission  or  legal  character.  I  am  come  to  point  them  out 
to  you.  If  tliese  are  precocious  truths,  dangerous  to  publish, 
there  are  also  bold  truths  that  we  cannot  permit  ourselves  to 
conceal,  without  forfeiting  our  duty  as  public  men. 

"  It  is  sufficient,  sometimes,  to  disclose  a  project  to  discon- 
cert its  authors.  This,  I  trust,  will  be  the  case  with  men 
who  have  taken  upon  themselves  the  task  of  reforming  the 
laws  of  the  Cisalpine  people.  Those  laws  are  ours.  The 
constitution  of  Milan  is  the  French  constitution  of  the  year 
3  ...  It  is  the  depositethat  the  French  people  have  confided 
to  you,  to  the  directory,  to  the  administrators,  to  the  magis- 
trates, to  the  army,  and  to  the  courage  of  every  Frenchman. 
Here  reposes  our  social  guarantee.  If  we  swerve  from 
that  path,  I  no  longer  behold  a  firm  ground  on  which  we  can 
fix  the  basis  of  our  republican  institutions.  I  see  only  a 
land  of  fire  and  despotism,  or  the  quicksands  of  civil  war. 
"  How  rash  are  those  who,  in  their  scientific  pride,  with- 
out paying  attention  to  the  lessons  of  experience,  dare  call 
making  perfect  the  violent  triumph  of  their  system  over  our 
constitutional  system !  Is  the  moment  then  arrived  w^hen 
France  and  the  republics,  the  offspring  of  her  victories,  must 
leave  the  tutelary  asylum  they  had  entered,  after  so  many 
blood-stained  storms?.  .  .  How  then?  We  have  had  scarce- 
ly time  to  breathe — our  laws  are  yet  in  their  infancy  !  A 
neighbouring  state  has  just  adopted  them !  And  already  we 
dream  of  changes  for  our  allies  who  refuse  them  !  Treaties 
have  been  signed  with  the  Cisalpine ;  they  have  been  guar- 
antied by  you,  and  they  have  the  boldness  to  violate  them 
before  your  eyes,  without  your  concurrence  !  To-day  an 
ambassador  salutes  the  independence  of  a  republic,  and  he 
dares  to-morrow  to  conspire  against  it ! . . .  And  French  bay- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  '  59 

onets  are  raised  to  support  those  plots!  Notwithstanding 
the  numerous  communications  that  liave  reached  us,  I  would 
not  give  credit  to  projects  so  devoid  of  sense  ;  but  the  cries 
of  the  Cisalpine  people  have  been  heard — the  spectres  of 
aristocracy  and  discord  are  awakened  before  us,  and  already 
they  raise  their  heads,  eager  for  vengeance,  upon  the  cradle 
of  the  Italian  republics,  daughters  of  our  victories  ! 

"  Perhaps  it  is  only  an  illusion — at  the  same  time,  if  the 
government  dissipates  our  alarms,  we  shall  have  to  congrat- 
ulate ourselves  upon  having  expressed  them.  If  a  culpable 
project  exists,  we  must  attack  it,  we  must  repress  it  with  a 
hrm  hand.  Let  us  not  forget  that  an  attempt  made  against 
the  Cisalpine  republic  might  become  an  essay  upon  ours.  But 
before  such  an  attempt  shall  be  made  upon  our  social  com- 
pact, they  must  resolve  to  pass  over  the  bodies  of  more  than 
one  representative  of  the  people.  This  compact  does  not 
arrogate  to  any  authority  the  exclusive  right  of  modifying  it. 
The  reform  of  its  errors  is  subject  to  constitutional  rules. 
The  council  of  ancients  can,  at  Milan  as  well  as  at  Paris, 
demand  a  revision;  but  it  must  never  be  the  result  of  for- 
eign manoeuvres. 

"  A  French  minister  resides  at  Milan  with  the  executive 
power  of  that  republic  which  Austria  has  so  reluctantly  rec- 
ognised. What  right  has  that  minister  of  peace  to  attempt 
reforming  a  power  to  which  he  is  accredited  ]  If  diplomat- 
ic agents  permit  themselves  to  overturn  republics  of  which 
the  treaties  of  peace  have  consecrated  the  independence,  if 
those  treaties,  guarantied  by  the  French  people,  and  paid  for 
with  the  purest  of  its  blood,  are  not  respected  by  the  direc- 
tory, where  then  will  be  the  limits  of  the  directorial  author- 
ity ]  That  authority  cannot  become  tyrannic  with  our  allies, 
but  in  becoming  despotic  at  home.  Let  then  a  thousand 
times  resound  beneath  these  roofs,  the  words  of  the  address 
that  you  have  received  :  '  If  five  or  six  persons  are  sufficient 
at  Milan  to  overthrow  a  constitution^  it  loill  only  require  at  Paris 
a  rather  larger  number  of  audacious  innovators.''  Let  us  at  the 
same  time  see  in  what  those  so  much  vaunted  innovations 
consist,  which  they  want  to  impose  by  force  upon  Italy. 

"  They  talk  very  much  of  economy  !  .  .  .  They  are  going, 
Mdthout  doubt,  to  put  a  stop  to  the  dilapidations.  The  con- 
tracts will  in  future  be  made  public.  A  system  of  finance, 
discussed  and  completed  by  the  deputies  of  the  Cisalpine 
people,  is  about  to  be  estabhshed.  Before  this  system  of 
order,  the  fiscal  ordinances  of  our  generals  and  commissaries, 
which  are  the  source  of  so  many  complaints  and  struggles, 
will  fail.  .  .  .  No,  representatives  of  the  people,  there  is  no 
question  of  these  sort  of  measures.  The  economies  that 
have  been  contemplated  are  confined  to  the  suppression  of 
two  out  of  the  five  directors,  and  a  portion  of  the  legislative 
body.  .  .  .  Certainly,  to  find  so  powerful  a  resource,  there 


60  MEMOIRS    OF 

was  no  necessity  to  resort  to  the  profound  combinations  of 
a  commission  of  finances » 

"  In  support  of  that  diminution  of  the  expenses,  they  ad- 
journ the  legislative  body  for  eight  months  in  the  year.  They 
give  to  the  executive  power  the  initiative  of  the  laws,  and 
that  is  what  they  call  perfectionating.  citizens.  It  was  by 
such  perfectionatioiis  that  in  days  of  yore  tlie  triumvirs 
arose.  At  Rome  they  wanted  to  concentrate  the  power.  .  . 
And  the  proscriptors  soon  divided  the  spoils  and  the  blood 
of  the  Romans.  .  .  And  the  great  republic,  to  escape  from 
the  triumvirs,  was  reduced  to  resign  itself  to  the  yoke  of 

Cesar History  reproduces  incessantly  events  under 

different  forms. 

"  Cromwell,  like  the  triumvirs,  wanted  also  to  concen- 
trate, to  simphfy,  and  to  perfect  the  parliamentary  govern- 
ment ;  and  as  there  is  nothing  more  simple,  less  eccentric, 
and  less  complicated,  than  the  absolute  power  of  a  single 
man,  Cromwell  secured  the  whole  power  to  himself.  But 
Cromv/ell  was  English  ;  he  did  not  impose  his  yoke  in  the 
name  of  a  foreign  power.  Before  he  employed  force  against 
the  parliament,  he  waited  patiently  till  that  assembly  had 
lost  its  popularity  by  its  errors.  He  introduced  his  agents 
into  it — excited  them  to  act  in  direct  opposition  to  public 
opinion,  and  reduced  it  to  so  great  a  degree  of  ignominy, 
that,  when  it  endeavoured  to  assume  a  parliamentary  atti- 
tude, the  time  M^as  past.  Cromwell  entered  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  commanded  his  soldiers  to  overturn  the 
manikin  of  national  representation.  His  soldiers  obeyed. 
....  And  English  liberty  expired,  because  its  parliament 
knew  not  how  to  preserve  public  opinion ;  and  that  daring 
man  knew  how  to  appropriate  to  himself  that  forsaken  in- 
heritance. And  we  are  silent  to-day  !  —  We  permit  our 
armies  to  be  employed  in  oppressing  the  people  who  are 
our  allies Have  we  then  too  many  friends  in  Eu- 
rope ■? 

"  But  have  you  all  reflected  upon  the  danger  of  calling  the 
arms  and  the  attention  of  the  army  upon  these  pretended 
perfectionings  imposed  upon  the  people  against  their  will  ? 
Have  you  already  forgotten,  that  when  the  republic  is  men- 
aced, the  French  army  knows  how  to  deliberate  ]  No  ;  the 
representative  system  does  not  want  defenders.  If  unfor- 
tunate and  difficult  circumstances  have  changed  the  invio- 
lability of  the  system,  that  change  was  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  the  republic  :  it  must  not  discourage  us.  It 
proves  that,  to  save  the  country,  there  is  no  sacrifice  impos- 
sible for  the  representatives  of  the  people,  even  that  of  their 
lives.  It  proves  that,  if  civil  war  is  a  dreadful  misfortune, 
the  counter-revolution  is  the  worst  of  all  evils.  Proclaim 
then  that  the  constitution  of  the  year  3  has  never  ceased  to 
be  the  supreme  will  of  the  people  ;  that  its  revision  cannot 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  61 

be  obtained  at  Milan  as  at  Paris,  but  by  constitutional 
means  ;  and  that  to  affect  even  to  prepare  for  it  by  other 
means  is  an  outrage,  and  that  you  are  determined  to  stop  in 
its  impure  course  the  torrent  of  innovations  with  which  we 
are  threatened.  The  Cisalpine  alone  can  modify  their  con- 
stitution in  their  primary  assemblies.  No  power  upon 
earth  can  usurp  the  right  of  national  sovereignty. 

"  I  demand,  citizen  representatives,  that  a  message  shall 
be  addressed  to  the  directory,  to  obtain  from  them,  with  the 
shortest  possible  delay,  informations  upon  the  reports  which 
are  spread  of  a  movement  in  the  Cisalpine,  and  of  an  inno- 
vation of  which  the  French  ambassador  is  accused.  These- 
informations  will  calm  our  fears,  or  at  least  they  Avill  pro- 
voke an  explanation  that  is  become  indispensable  for  our 
honour,  our  independence,  and  our  security." 

This  harangue,  delivered  with  some  degree  of  impetuosi- 
ty, was  received  with  excessive  applause ;  the  impression 
of  six  copies  Vv  as  demanded,  and  every  thing  announced  a 
success  likely  to  have  gone  far  in  influencing  the  directory. 
The  principal  orators  devoted  to  the  government,  aston- 
ished at  first  at  so  unexpected  an  attack,  recovered  from 
their  surprise,  but,  not  daring  to  face  the  discussion,  they 
preferred  letting  the  effect  which  I  had  produced  operate. 
They  resorted  to  an  adroit  tactic,  and  demanded  the  gener- 
al committee,  to  which  they  had  a  right  when  any  diplomat- 
ic question  was  agitated.  As  I  had  not  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  any  party,  I  was  not  supported  with  sufficient 
firmness,  and  a  general  committee  was  granted. 

While  they  evacuated  the  tribunes,  the  ministerialists  as- 
certained that  there  was  no  party  linked  eitlier  with  the 
Jacobins  or  with  the  constitutionalists,  and  they  regained 
courage.  Their  disciplined  phalanxes  made  a  terrible  out- 
cry against  my  proposition :  and  1  was  left  alone  in  the 
breach,  to  punish  me,  without  doubt,  for  not  hfiving  com 
bjned  my  attack  with  my  colleagues  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
my  resistance,  I  was  repulsed  by  the  order  of  the  day. 
The  General  Lahoz,  who  was  waiting  outside  the  chamber 
of  the  assembly,  departed  immediately,  furious  at  the  indif- 
ference of  the  council  to  the  complaints  of  the  Cisalpine 
government. 

May  I  now  be  permitted  to  judge  myself,  my  discourse, 
and  my  conduct  1  The  confession  of  a  public  man  of  past 
times,  may  sometunes  serve  for  us  to  understand  better 
the  public  men  of  the  present  day. 

The  constitution  of  the  year  3  !  Did  I  idolize  it  to  such 
a  point  that  I  looked  upon  it  as  our  palladium  ]  No,  cer- 
tainly not.  After  the  conventional  tempesis,  in  which,  like 
many  others,  I  had  placed  great  faith,  I  liked  all  in  that 
charter  which  appeared  to  offer  a  guarantee  against  the  re- 
turn of  the  reign  of  terror.    I  compared  it  then,  with  ad- 

F 


62  MEMOIRS    OF 

vantage,  to  the  charter  of  1791 — ^but  experience  had  cooled 
my  ardour.  When  I  arrived  at  the  legislative  body,  I  soon 
thought  hke  the  rest  of  the  members  of  the  council  of  an- 
cients, and  the  half  of  those  of  five  hundred.  We  saw  that 
the  charter  had  been  violated  in  Fructidor  by  the  proscrip- 
tion of  two  directors  and  a  part  of  the  legislative  body;  it 
had  also  been  violated  in  Floreal  by  decimating  the  na- 
tional representation.  We  cannot  conceal  that  a  charter 
violated  is  a  charter  destroyed.  We  felt  that  the  state  of 
affairs,  produced  by  those  two  violations,  v/as  but  a  lawless 
act,  because  it  had  never  been  rendered  legitimate  by  the 
voting  of  the  people.  1'hat  voting  not  having  taken  place 
either  after  Fructidor  or  after  Fioreal,  there  no  longer  ex- 
isted any  legal  foiin.  We  therefore  no  longer  understood 
by  the  constitution  any  thing  but  the  principles  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  of  its  representation,  divided  ii^to 
two  chambers  of  a  collective  and  temporary  government. 
We  were  sincere  in  those  principles,  but  we  had  no  longer 
any  faith  in  the  remainder,  because  we  no  longer  believe  in 
that  which  has  ceased  to  exist.  A  defeated  organization 
will  not  revive.  The  principle  alone,  the  soul,  can  sur- 
vive the  collective  or  individual  body  when  struck  by  disso- 
lution. If  that  dissolution  happens  from  consumption  or  by 
violence,  the  principle  will  reanimate  another  body,  more 
or  less  resembling  the  body  that  is  no  more  ;  but  it  cannot 
give  life  to  that  which  has  become  the  prey  of  time,  to  that 
greedy,  inflexible,  insatiable  power,  that  never  lets  go  its 
hold  of  that  which  it  has  seized. 

Experience  had  confirmed  the  foresight  of  Sieyes,  who, 
in  the  year  3,  had  given  a  proof  of  his  conviction  in  refusing 
to  enter  the  directory.  After  our  reverses,  the  parties  no 
longer  mutually  imposed  upon  one  another  in  speaking  of 
the  constitution  of  the  year  3.  The  Jacobins  understood  by 
that  the  republic,  and  an  executive  power  subject  to  the 
omnipotence  of  a  national  assembly,  alone  capable,  in  their 
opinion,  of  impeding  the  counter-revolution.  The  constitu- 
tionalists, on  the  contrary,  preserved  their  political  faith  in 
the  principles  of  a  division  into  two  chambers,  and  a  gov- 
ernment strong  and  free  within  its  legal  limits.  Again,  these 
two  principles,  to  which  the  sense  of  the  word  constitution 
of  the  year  3  was  reduced,  did  not  shine  in  our  eyes  with  a 
pure  and  clear  light.  For  my  part,  the  division  into  two 
chambers  appeared  to  me  then,  as  it  does  now,  our  ark  of 
salvation.  But  do  those  chambers  effectively  represent  the 
sovereign  1  With  the  electoral  cause,  and  the  eligible  cause, 
does  there  exist  only  one  species  of  men  in  France  ?  Was 
there  a  sincere  representation  when  the  greatest  part  of  the 
French  people  had  not  even  the  right  of  voting  in  their  com- 
munes !  It  was  natural  then  to  desire  a  more  perfect  repre- 
sentation.  As  for  the  executive  power,  provided  it  was  elect- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  63 

ive  and  temporary,  I  was  not  particularly  desirous  for  the 
number  of  five  directors.  The  preference  which  Napoleon 
had  given  at  Genoa  to  three  magistrates  instead  of  five, 
combated  in  my  mind  against  the  old  idea  of  the  triumvirs. 
My  opinion  in  that  respect,  therefore,  floated  undecided. 

In  that  situation  of  mind,  why  was  I  so  much  disgusted  with 
the  innovations  which    the  French  government  imposed? 
The  division  into  two  chambers  v/as  preserved.    The  direct- 
ory remained  elective  and  temporary.     They  adopted  the 
number  of  three,  which  the  founder  of  the  Cisalpine  had  at 
first  repulsed.     There  was  nothing  in  that  to  create  alarm, 
either  for  Milan  or  for  Paris.    What  sentiment  then  prompt- 
ed me  to  enter  into  the  most  implaca,ble  opposition  ?   My 
vanity  had  been  flattered  by  the  mission  of  General  Lahoz 
to  me,  in  the  name  of  the  Cisalpine  people.     My  vanity  had 
been  wounded  at  the  little  value  the  directors  had  set  upon 
my  intervention.     This  sentiment  of  self-love,  doubly  exci- 
ted in  a  contrary  direction,  had  more  influence  over  my 
conduct  than  if  I  had  acted  from  conviction.     The  political 
oath ! In  urging  the  council  of  five  hundred  to  re- 
new the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  constitution  of  the  year  3, 
was  I  sincere  ?   Most  undoubtedly.     But  that  constitution 
consisted  at  that  time  only  of  two  chambers,  and  in  an  elect- 
ive directory.     I  combated  the  reduction  of  the  directors, 
because  the  government  supported  it.    The  spirit  of  opposition 
alone  decided  my  incertitude.      In  proposing  the  oath,  I 
raised  a  barrier  against  the  government.      This  oath  ex- 
pressed only  the  determination  to  combat  the  reduction  of 
five  to  three,  and  it  was  a  serious  fault  on  my  part  applying 
that  formula  to  defeat  an  object  that  was  unworthy  of  it. 
It  was  profaning  that  which  was  sacred.     All  the  parties, 
every  individual  in  France,  committed,  and  still  commit,  the 
same  fault ;  but  it  should  be  imputed  only  to  the  legislation  : 
for  the  oath  should  only  be  applied  to  the  principle,  and  not 
to  a  form,  any  more  than  to  a  man.     And  as  regards  politi- 
cal conscience,  there  are  but  two  principles — the  divine 
right  (which  in  its  last  analysis  is  perhaps  reduced  to  theoc- 
racy), and  the  popular  right,  which  depends  upon  the  suf- 
frages of  men.     These  two  principles,  which  are  divided  in 
the  world,  are  alone  worthy  of  an  oath ;  and  it  is  to  one  or 
the  other  of  these  three  principles,  that  all  political  oaths  do 
and  must  in  reality  have  reference.     It  is  absurd,  in  fact,  to 
invoke   Heaven  to  maintain  a  form  of   administration  or 
government ;   for  a  principle  admits  of  a  thousand  forms. 
It  is  absurd  to  make  oath  to  a  man,  for  that  man,  however 
absolute  he  may  be,  president,  consul,  king,  or  emperor, 
commands  under  certain  conditions,  the  violation  of  which 
justly  causes  his  downfall.    When  a  government  fails  in  the 
performance  of  its  own  obligations,  the  governed  no  long- 
er OAve  it  any  duty.     The  oath  of  fidehty  made  to  a  man  is 


64         ,  MEMOIRS    OP 

then  only  nonsense,  since  the  oath  to  the  charter  might 
exact  the  violation  of  the  oath  to  the  prince.  There  is  then 
a  manifest  contradiction  between  the  oath  to  the  social  com- 
pact and  the  oath  to  the  magistrate,  that  your  first  oath 
might  force  you  to  abjure.  Tlie  moral  inviolabihty  of  a  ma- 
gistrate can  never  be  absolute,  which  history  has  proved ; 
and  it  caimot  alter  the  evidence  of  the  real  contradiction  be- 
tween the  two  oaths,  except  in  the  question  of  the  Arro- 
ganese  oath.  ^^  If  not  so,''  it  is  not  more  reasonable  to  swear 
fidehty  to  an  assembly,  which  is  only  a  collective  magis- 
trate; that  assembly,  if  it  was  even  invested  with  the  con- 
stituent power,  has  for  its  limits  the  mandate  of  its  constit- 
uents. Thus  the  oath  which  was  nominally  taken  to  that 
assembly,  was  only  taken  in  effect  to  the  elective  principle, 
and  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 

It  is  quite  natural  that  forms  should  change  ;  they  depend 
upon  a  thousand  circumstances.  Principles  alone  should 
remain  unalterable  ;  and  they  alone  merit  the  oath  of  fideli- 
ty. The  powers  which  the  sovereign  can  change  have  only 
the  rigiit  of  a  promise  of  obedience,  which  ceases  to  exist 
as  soon  as  the  magisterial  power  is  revoked.  Thus  the  only 
persons  who  have  forfeited  their  poHtical  faith,  are  those 
who  have  changed  their  principles.  It  is  the  faithful, 
brought  up  in  the  adoration  of  kings  almost  as  much  as  in 
the  fear  of  God,  and  wlio,  from  fickleness,  from  discontent, 
or  from  ambition,  pass  over  to  the  popular  camp ;  or  popu- 
lar men  who  pass  over  from  the  camp  to  the  divine  right, 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  one  may  not  change  a  principle 
with  good  faith ;  but  to  be  free  from  reproach,  they  should 
consent  to  make  a  solemn  abjuration,  the  same  as  when 
they  change  a  religion.  I  only  mean,  that  notwithstanding 
the  thousand  oaths  that  have  been  taken  to  so  many  differ- 
ent charters  within  these  fifty  years,  we  must  infinitely  re- 
duce the  number  of  the  guilty.  The  past  generation  was  as 
good  as  the  present.  The  fault  of  this  sacrilegious  play 
with  oaths  does  not  belong  to  individuals,  but  to  the  legis- 
lative nonsense  of  lavishing  oaths  on  forms  of  government, 
instead  of  restricting  them  to  two  principles.  That  error  is 
not  yet  destroyed ;  and,  as  long  as  it  exists,  there  will  be 
nearly  as  many  nominal  perjuries  as  there  are  public  men 
who  survive  the  several  social  organizations.  Let  us  hope 
that  a  good  law  may  put  an  end  to  this  scandal. 

I  return  to  the  subject  of  the  oath  which  I  urged  against 
the  innovations  of  the  Cisalpine.  It  was  only  justifiable 
under  the  consideration  of  the  violation  of  tlie  sovereignty 
of  the  Italian  people.  Beyond  that,  as  the  orators  of  the 
directory  observed,  the  diplomatic  question  was  alone  to  be 
considered ;  and  even  in  admitting  that  the  intervention  of 
the  French  government  was  violent,  the  question  should 
have  been  argued  privately,  and  in  a  secret  committee. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  65 

The  noise  made  upon  the  subject  only  increased  the  evil, 
by  encouraging  the  party,  unfortunately  too  numerous,  that 
had  arisen  in  Italy  against  our  ambassador.  In  fact,  al- 
though the  directory  were  in  the  wrong  for  having  so  awk- 
wardly chosen  the  time  for  its  innovations,  it  was  wrong  of 
me  to  have  accused  them  violently,  and  the  council  acted 
wisely  in  passing  to  the  order  of  the  day. 

The  spectres  of  discord  and  aristocracy  figured  in  my  dis- 
course. In  speaking  of  discord,  I  expressed  a  very  clear 
idea ;  and,  unfortunately,  I  spoke  only  a  melancholy  truth. 
But  what  did  I  then  mean  by  aristocracy  ]  It  was  not  the 
aristocracy  of  the  peerage,  for  the  directory  did  not  think  of 
again  raising  at  Ptlilan  that  privileged  caste.  The  question 
was  only  a  reduction  among  the  functionaries.  It  was  to 
that  reduction  then  that  I  gave  the  terrible  epithet  of  an 
aristocratical  measure.  The  measure  was  notwithstanding 
ill  chosen ;  it  tended  only  to  strengthen  the  cradle  of  the 
Italian  republic,  and  not  to  deliver  it  up  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemies  of  the  aristocracy.  My  figure  of  rhetoric  was 
then  but  an  imaginary  spectre,  notwithstanding  it  had  more 
eifect  than  solid  reasoning.  Strange  power  of  certain  words 
in  revolutions!  Magic  power,  sometimes  beneficial,  too  of- 
ten fatal !  No  word  had  a  greater  influence  among  us  than 
that  of  aristocrat.  The  anathema  against  aristocracy,  born 
in  1789,  has  not  yet  grown  old  in  183G! — It  is  always  the 
same  word  ;  but  to  what  different  ideas,  and  often  the  most 
opposite,  have  they  not  been  applied  ?  ....  In  1789,  it 
indicated  the  defenders  of  the  abuses  of  the  ancient  regime, 
the  blind  partisans  of  the  reunion  of  all  the  powers  in  a 
single  hand ;  and  since  that  they  have  transferred  it  in  turn 
to  the  wisest  defenders  of  the  liberty  of  the  new  regime, 
and  to  the  enlightened  partisans  of  the  division  and  equi- 
librium of  powers.  The  mmisters  of  Louis  XVI.,  Necker, 
Malesherbes,  and  Roland,  Bailly  and  Lafayette,  the  Feuil- 
lants,  the  Girondins,  the  Moderates,  in  one  word,  all  those 
who  were  overthrown,  received  in  turn  that  cruel  epithet, 
the  preface  to  the  scaffold.  We  had  passed  those  deplora- 
ble crises  ;  but  the  word,  though  it  had  ceased  to  be  mortal, 
had  not  ceased  to  be  equally  odious.  It  would  have  been 
very  unwise  not  to  let  fly  that  arrow  at  one's  adversaries. 
I  did  like  the  rest ;  all  who  were  meant  to  be  held  up  to 
public  hatred  were  branded  with  that  appellation.  We  bore 
some  resemblance  to  the  good  people  of  Lower  Brittany, 
who  were  so  much  occupied  with  the  idea  of  the  gabelle, 
that  they  beheld  it  everywhere,  even  in  the  clock  which 
Madame  de  Sevigne  received  from  Paris !  We  must,  how- 
ever (except  we  prefer  an  absolute  to  a  modified  monarchy), 
end  by  reconciling  ourselves  with  the  gabelle ! 

F2 


Do  MEMOIRS    OF 


III.    THE    ARMIES. 


Our  armies  were  not  contented  with  the  improvidence  of 
the  government.  They  wanted  generals  like  Brune,  Mac- 
donald,  Championnet,  and  Joubert,  to  repair  the  faults  of  the 
ministers.  They  would  have  attained,  if  they  had  arrogated 
to  themselves,  as  Napoleon  had  always  done,  the  supreme 
direction  of  the  military  administration.  They  attempted 
it,  and  Championnet  caused  even  some  civil  commissaries 
to  be  arrested  that  opposed  him ;  but  that  which  had  suc- 
ceeded with  Napoleon,  did  not  succeed  with  others.  They 
were  obliged  to  yield  to  the  agents  of  the  ministers.  They 
sent  them  from  Paris  even  the  orders  for  the  placing  of 
their  divisions.  They  were  obliged  to  divide  when  they 
wished  to  concentrate  them.  The  ministry,  equally  impe- 
rious and  incapable  as  the  Aulic  council  of  Vienna,  knew 
not  how  to  do  right,  and  prevented  the  chiefs  of  the  army 
from  doing  what  they  ought  to  have  done.  It  was  thus 
they  prepared  for  a  new  campaign ! 

In  the  meantime  fifteen  hundred  Frenchmen,  conducted 
by  General  Humbert,  had  landed  in  Ireland.  England,  in 
alarm,  despatched  twenty  thousand  men  against  that  handful 
of  brave  soldiers.  The  disaffected  Irish  joined  our  standard 
veiy  slowly.  The  news  of  the  descent  upon  Ireland  was 
hailed  by  all  the  parties  with  enthusiasm. 

This  triumph,  which  was  destined  to  be  short,  was  com- 
pleted at  the  end  of  the  month,  by  the  ofhcial  announce- 
ment of  the  landing  of  Napoleon  in  Egypt.  The  taking  of 
Alexandria  had  raised  the  public  confidence,  and  the  council 
declared  that  the  army  of  Egypt  had  merited  the  praises  of 
the  country.  The  glory  of  Napoleon  reflected  sufficiently 
upon  his  brothers,  to  make  me  easily  forget  my  legislative 
(^dj^eat  of  the  Cisalpine.  That  glory  was  like  the  shield  of 
tfte*-.  mighty  Ajax,  beneath  whose  shelter  the  archers  had 
rallied — that  shield  high  as  a  tower ! 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

The  innovations  of  the  Cisalpine  had  verj'-  much  increased 
the  agitation  in  the  minds  of  the  legislative  body.  I  ranged 
myself  after  that  discussion  in  the  constitutional  opposition, 
which  had  for  its  object  a  personal  attack  against  the  direc- 
tors, at  the  same  time  that  it  defended  the  institution.  We 
did  not  refuse  our  concurrence  in  the  measures  that  were 
indispensable  for  the  public  service ;  but  the  most  bitter 
censures  paid  the  price  of  what  we  granted.  We  consented 
to  the  famous  law  of  the  conscription,  of  which  the  con- 
queror of  Fleurus  was  the  reporter ;  a  holy  law  when  ap- 
plied to  an  offensive  war,  because,  by  increasing  indefinitely 


LTJCIEN    BONAPARTE  67 

the  number  of  the  respective  armies,  it  might  have  brought 
us  to  a  state  httle  better  than  that  of  barbarians.     In  those 
difficuU  circumstances,  every  thing  that  the  directory  de- 
manded was  granted  them  by  the  opposition,  except  the 
tax  upon  salt,  which  was  rejected,  notwithstanding  tlie  im- 
portunities of  the  reporters  of  the  commission  of  finances. 
I  took  an  active  part  in  this  rejection :  a  tax  which  affects 
those  w^ho  possess  nothing,  has  ever  appeared  odious  to  me, 
and  contrary  to  the  ends  of  all  good  government.     Let  us 
re-establish,  as  far  as  we  can,  an  equilibrium  in  the  differ- 
ence of  fortunes — diminish,  as  far  as  w^e  can,  the  distance 
between  the  rich  and  the  poor.     It  Avas  in  vain  tliat  they 
professed  all  those  fine  doctrines  upon  the  superiority  of 
indirect  taxation.     Those  taxes  which  reach  him  who,  hav- 
ing nothing,  owes  nothing  to  the  state,  are  therefore  unjust ; 
and  when  they  touch  objects  which  are  of  primary  necessity, 
as  salt,  they  are  infamous.     We  admired  the  economical 
dissertations,  but  we  rejected  the  tax  upon  salt. 

A  law,  which  is  under  discussion  even  at  this  time,  the  law 
upon  the  periodical  press,  traced  a  more  decided  line  of  de- 
marcation between  the  parties.  Berber  was  the  reporter.  I 
matle  a  part  of  the  commission  with  our  president,  Daunon, 
Cabanis,  the  friend  of  Mirabeau,  Genissieux,  and  Andrieux. 
After  the  18th  Fructidor,  a  law  had  placed  the  newspapers  for 
one  year  under  the  inspection  of  the  police.  The  end  of  it 
was  almost  arrived.  We  proposed  a  penal  law,  founded 
upon  the  judgment  of  the  jury,  of  the  public  offences  of  the 
press ;  and  upon  tlie  promulgation  of  the  law,  the  preven- 
tive action  of  the  directorial  police  was  to  cease.  Till  then 
all  the  members  of  the  commission  were  agreed ;  but  ought 
there  to  have  been  a  fixed  period  assigned  for  the  promulga- 
tion of  our  law  ?  The  majority  of  the  commission,  formed 
by  Daunon,  Berber,  Genissieux,  and  myself,  decided  for  the 
affirmative.  We  were  impatient  to  deprive  the  police  of  its 
dictatorship.  We  inserted  in  the  second  article,  that  the 
dictatorship  would  cease  at  the  end  of  three  months,  a  time 
fixed  in  which  the  council  engaged  to  terminate  ti;e  penal 
law.  The  discussion  was  stormy.  Our  colleagues,  Caba- 
nis and  Andrieux,  declared  they  had  not  voted  that  second 
article,  and  demanded  the  suppression.  The  directorials 
wanted  to  postpone  for  one  year  the  dictatorship  of  the  po- 
lice. They  caused  our  article  to  be  rejected,  and  triumphed 
again  over  the  opposition.  But  our  penal  law  assigned  to 
the  jury  the  judgment  of  all  the  public  offences  of  the  peri- 
odical press!  Thirty-eight  years  have  passed  since  that 
sitting.  .  .  .  What  progress  have  we  made  in  the  con- 
stitutional guarantees  ■?  Has  France  marched  forward  since 
that  time  1 


68  MEMOIRS    OF 


Month  of  Vendemiaire,  yearl.     From  the  22d  of  September  to 

the  22d  of  October,  1798. 

Dangers  of  Systematical  Opposition — ^' Manet  altamente  repostum" 

I.    THE    POWERS. 

The  end  of  the  year  6  of  the  repubhc  had  been  marked  by 
a  most  inauspicious  event.  The  vague  report  which  was 
spread  of  the  disaster  of  our  fleet  in  the  Bay  of  Aboukir,  was 
unfortunately  confirmed  in  the  first  days  of  the  year  7.  I 
beg  leave  to  observe  that  I  do  not  class  the  events  in  the 
precise  order  of  dates,  but  according  as  the  news  arrived  to 
us  in  the  capital.  Nelson,  received  in  triumph  in  the  Bay 
of  Naples,  hastened  the  manifestation  of  the  hostile  senti- 
ments of  that  court.  During  the  time  that  the  British  hero 
arrived  from  the  coast  of  Syria,  the  General  Mack,  too  soon 
celebrated  by  fame,  hastened  from  the  banks  of  the  Danube 
to  take  the  command  of  the  Neapolitan  army,  increased  be- 
yond all  proportion  by  precipitate  measures.  The  future 
exploits  of  Mack  appeared  to  be  indubitable  at  that  court, 
misled  by  a  hatred  that  could  not  be  considered  without 
motives,  except  in  forgetting  the  scaifold  of  Marie  Antoi- 
nette !  Nothing  was  talked  of  but  Mack  upon  the  southern 
frontiers  of  the  Roman  States. 

Austria  and  the  empire  retarded,  for  a  length  of  time,  the 
negotiations  of  Rastadt,  and  were  far  less  seriously  occupied 
with  protocols  than  with  armaments.  Our  plenipotentiaries 
had  to  combat  a  powerful  adversary,  the  Comte  de  Metter- 
nich. 

Paul  executed  his  menaces  ;  with  one  hand  he  drove  his 
fleet  into  the  Bosphorus,  struck  with  amazement  at  the  as- 
pect of  the  vessels  of  the  Czar  and  the  Sultan  sailing  to- 
gether. With  the  other  hand  he  precipitated  fifty  thousand 
men,  children  of  his  melancholy  deserts,  into  the  fertile 
countries  of  Europe.  That  horde,  commanded  by  the  terri- 
ble Suwarrow,  had  already  traversed  the  plains  of  Lithuania, 
and  touched  the  gates  of  Cracow. 

The  Porte,  abandoned  by  our  government  to  the  English 
diplomacy,  saw  only  in  our  expedition  the  invasion  of  its 
provinces  ;  she  signed  a  triple  alliance  with  London  and  Pe- 
tersburgh.  It  cannot  be  dissimulated  that  the  expedition  to 
Egypt  was  the  cause  of  that  triple  alliance,  and  that  it  was 
in  favour  also  of  the  Russian  influence  at  Constantinople,  a 
result  that  sways  even  now  the  European  politics;  a  re- 
sult more  prejudicial,  more  fatal,  than  the  triumphs  of  Su- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  QQ 

warrow,  equally  owing  to  the  absence  of  the  generals  and 
soldiers  of  our  great  fleet. 

England,  reassured  upon  Ireland,  contemplated  a  second 
coalition  against  France. 

The  Piedmontese,  tired  of  our  pretended  alliance,  armed 
ten  thousand  men  whom  they  promised  as  auxiliaries,  but 
whose  dispositions,  like  those  of  the  population,  announced 
the  most  bitter  enemies.  Our  provident  and  skilful  Gener- 
al Mesnard  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  prevent  a  popular 
insurrection  against  our  garrison  at  Turin;  and  some  solita- 
ry murders  had  stained  the  streets  of  that  capital. 

At  length  the  republic  of  the  United  States  retired  from 
us  also,  to  approach  the  nearer  to  our  enemies.  By  dint 
of  unskilfulness  and  obstinacy,  the  agents  of  the  direct- 
ory had  forced  our  natural  allies  to  forget  the  memories  of 
Louis  XVI.  and  Lafayette.  Washington  had  personally  ap- 
proved of  the  alliance  with  England,  in  accepting  of  the  com- 
mand of  the  armies  of  the  Union. 

II.    THE    ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

The  French  innovations  were  finished  in  Lombardy,  with- 
out their  being  able  to  repress  the  discontentment  that  each 
town,  each  village,  of  that  republic,  expressed  in  the  most 
vehement  yet  useless  addresses.  Violence  answered  their 
complaints.  The  General  Lahoz  was  deprived  of  his  place 
for  having  dared  to  fulfd  the  mission  of  his  government. 
The  disaffection  of  the  people  facilitated  the  success  of  the 
old  and  faithful  portions  of  the  statuo  quo  ante  bellum. 

The  parody  that  they  were  playing  at  Rome  had  arrived 
at  its  last  scene. 

The  military  commanders  gave  and  took  away,  at  their 
pleasure,  the  consular  toga,  from  men  so  unknown  that 
they  could  not  even  become  illustrious  in  mounting  the 
capitol ! 

Holland,  recovered  from  her  last  shock,  began  to  assume 
a  calmer  attitude.  Seconded  by  our  troops,  she  repulsed 
the  attack  of  the  English  upon  Flushing. 

Switzerland  still  resisted  against  our  intervention,  and 
appeared  always  more  irritated  against  the  state  of  guar- 
dianship forced  upon  them.  These  people,  old  republicans, 
found  no  compensation  possible  for  independence  ;  and  the 
diplomatic  sophisms  had  little  influence  upon  their  good 
sense.  All  the  negotiations,  therefore,  were  useless  :  they 
flew  to  arms,  and  there  was  no  alternative  except  to  change 
our  pohtics  or  shed  the  blood  of  our  aUies.  The  directory 
did  not  hesitate  in  their  choice — nothing  is  more  flexible 
than  weakness,  when  it  thinks  itself  sustained  by  victorious 
bayonets.  All  reconcihation  was  neglected.  Our  brave 
^soldiers  were  thrown  by  a  senseless  and  cruel  order  against 


70  MEMOIRS    OF 

a  part  of  the  good  and  simple  Helvetians.  Seas  of  repub- 
lican blood  were  shed  on  both  sides,  as  if  we  had  any  to 
spare  when  upon  the  eve  of  combating  against  kings.  The 
District  of  Stanz  became  celebrated  by  a  victory  that  was 
a  fratricide. 

III.    THE    ARMIES. 

The  descent  of  General  Humbert  in  Ireland  was  to  have 
been  seconded  by  an  expedition  that  sailed  from  Brest. 
Our  Aulic  council  had  disposed  the  affair  in  so  wise  a  man- 
ner that  the  fifteen  hundred  Frenchmen  who  had  just  land- 
ed in  Ireland  were  not  supported,  and  when  the  army  of 
Cornwallis  had  surrounded  the  valiant  avant  garde,  which 
was  reduced  to  capitulate,  the  auxiliary  squadron  left  Brest. 
The  Irishman,  Naper  Tandy,  endeavoured  in  vain  to  make 
good  his  landing.  The  arms  which  he  brought  with  him 
for  ten  thousand  men  arrived  too  late.  For  several  days 
past  Humbert  had  been  a  prisoner.  The  insurgents  of  Ire- 
land, pursued  without  ceasing,  were  beaten.  The  hope  of 
that  powerful  succour  vanished  like  a  dream. 

Our  armies  of  Italy  and  the  North,  re-enforced  by  the 
first  levy  of  the  conscription,  awaited  with  impatience  the 
signal    for   new    combats — accustomed    to    conquer,  thQy 

thought  themselves  invincible ! Napoleon  continued 

his  triumphs.  We  received  despatches  from  Grand  Cairo. 
The  taking  of  that  capital,  its  administrative  organization, 
skilful  and  rapid,  several  victories,  among  which  shone 
those  of  the  pyramids,  the  beginning  of  the  works  of  the 
institute  in  Egypt,  all  contributed  to  distract  our  attention 
from  the  results  of  the  loss  of  our  fleet,  and  upon  the  triple 
alHance,  mistress  of  the  Mediterranean. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

The  legislative  body,  excited  by  the  danger  which  ap- 
proached, appeared,  at  first,  unanimous  to  second  the  gov- 
ernment with  all  its  power.  They  granted  it  some  financial 
resources ;  they  decreed  a  levy  of  two  hundred  thousand 
conscripts,  first  tribute  of  the  grand  law.  The  announce- 
ment of  a  crisis  is  always  favourable  in  numerous  assem- 
bhes  when  the  minds  of  people  are  exalted.  The  renewal 
of  the  bureau  had  brought  General  Jourdan  into  the  presi- 
dency ;  the  majority  of  the  secretaries  also  belonged  to  the 
Jacobin  opposition.  That  opposition,  after  having  accord- 
ed all  the  means  of  defence,  returned  to  its  natural  malev- 
olence, impatient  at  the  slowness  of  the  measures,  and  eager 
for  new  ones.  Briot,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  orators, 
proposed  the  formation  of  a  committee  of  seven  members, 
charged  to  meditate  the  measures  that  might  be  proposed 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  71 

to  the  legislative  body  the  day  upon  which  the  directory 
announced  the  rupture  of  the  negotiations  of  peace.  That 
mission  recalled  too  sensibly  the  former  committees  of  the 
convention  not  to  alarm  us.  It  would,  in  fact,  have  displa- 
ced the  centre  of  action,  and  annihilated  the  executive 
power.  The  orator  had  not  even  disguised  his  aim,  for  his 
harangue  breathed  only  the  most  immoderate  praises  of  the 
convention.  We  united  with  the  directorials,  and  an  almost 
general  disapprobation  repulsed  the  commission  of  seven. 
Another  orator  was  not  more  fortunate  in  proposing  the 
emission  of  six  hundred  millions  of  national  bank-notes : 
they  were  afraid  of  that  which  resembled  assignats,  as 
they  were  of  that  which  resembled  the  committees  of 
powerful  and  terrible  memory.  We  avoided  every  thing 
likely  to  alarm  the  directory  and  peaceful  men.  The  ex- 
aggerated party  were  at  that  time  in  the  minority.  They 
announced  to  us  in  a  few  days  that  the  most  estimable  man 
of  the  party,  the  conqueror  of  Fleurus,  accepted  the  com- 
mand of  an  army  ;  in  fact,  he  wrote  to  the  council  to  take 
leave  of  him.  This  worthy  citizen  possessed  the  esteem 
of  all  his  colleagues.  I  took  upon  myself  to  become  the 
organ  of  the  universal  opinion  ;(8)  and  they  ordered  the  im- 
pression of  six  copies  of  my  discourse  and  the  letter  of  the 
general.  This  departure  weakened  the  Jacobin  opposition. 
The  parties  of  the  council  were  nearly  of  an  equal  balance  : 
they  desired,  but  were  fearful  of  taking,  bold  measures. 
They  desired,  but  were  afraid  of  giving,  too  much  strength 
to  the  government ;  and  the  republic  gained  nothing  with 
all  our  hesitations. 

The  directorials  hoped  to  profit  from  these  hesitations. 
They  endeavoured  to  return  to  the  tax  upon  salt ;  and  they 
demanded  also  that  those  employed  for  the  (Octroi)  city 
toll  should  be  chosen  by  the  government.  The  commission 
of  the  finances  protested  that  the  tax  upon  salt,  upon  which 
the  produce,  if  certain,  would  exceed  thirty  millions,  was 
necessary : — the  right  was  reduced  to  the  half.  It  observ- 
ed also,  with  reason,  that,  under  the  present  circumstances, 
it  was  wiser  to  leave  to  the  executive  power  the  choice  of 
above  a  thousand  persons  employed  in  Paris  alone. 

These  importunities  could  not  persuade  the  two  opposi- 
tions, who,  united  upon  the  two  questions,  caused  both  of 
them  to  be  rejected.  They  were  not  sparing  in  reproaches 
to  the  commission  of  finances,  for  having  dared  to  renew 
for  the  tax  upon  salt  a  proposition  that  had  already  been 
rejected,  and  to  have  presented  it  before  the  delay  exacted 
by  law.  They  refused  to  the  government  the  right  of  nom- 
ination to  the  employments  of  the  (Octroi)  city  tolls  which 
•  they  had  established,  and  they  preferred  to  confide  the 
choice  to  the  departmental  administration.  I  spoke  and 
voted  for  that  last  measure,  v/hich  was  not  very  reasonable 


72  MEMOIRS   Of 

in  the  position  of  affairs  :  the  particular  administrations  of 
the  capital  had  too  often  taken  advantage  of  their  influ- 
ence ;  but  the  mania  of  tormenting  the  government  over- 
balanced the  wise  counsels  of  our  adversaries. 

That  mania  of  daily  opposition  to  a  government,  in  the 
administrative  measures  that  it  claims  for  the  public  ser- 
vice, has  often  proved  fatal.  It  appears  a  noble  proof  of 
independence ;  but  it  is,  perhaps,  too  often,  though  we  do 
not  own  it  to  ourselves,  only  a  spirit  of  egotism  in  a  body 
or  an  individual.  Ancient  history  has  not  transmitted  to  us 
an  example  of  these  struggles,  these  daily  broils,  upon  the 
administrative  details,  between  the  supreme  authorities  of 
the  state.  To  embarrass  one's  government  at  every  step, 
is  a  sort  of  patriotism  too  much  perfectionated  in  our  times ; 
the  obstacles  that  are  raised  against  the  administration 
(above  all  in  grave  cases)  are  far  more  prejudicial  to  the 
governed  than  to  those  who  govern.  They  weaken  those 
whom  they  ought  to  strengthen.  It  is  like  distracting  the 
attention  of  a  pilot  while  he  is  passing  amid  the  rocks  and 
quicksands  :  the  vessel  which  he  guides  carries  us  with  it 
as  vvell  as  him.  If  he  is  skilful,  let  him  alone,  and  aid  him 
in  his  manoeuvres,  instead  of  thwarting  him  ;  but  if  he  is 
imskilful,  and  is  likely  to  cause  us  to  be  shipwrecked — well, 
then,  even  in  that  case  we  must  aid  him,  till  the  precise 
moment  that  our  safety  requires  another  guide,  and  then  it 
will  not  suffice  to  make  puerile  attacks.  The  question  is 
not  one  of  gymnastics,  nor  of  self-love,  but  it  is  one  of  life 
and  death.  The  more  the  blow  is  prompt  and  decisive,  the 
more  the  safety  of  all  is  assured.  The  crisis  is  the  more 
salutary  when  it  is  rapid.  The  political  body  is  like  the 
human  body ;  a  happy  crisis  or  a  revolution  may  save  it ; 
but  years  of  long  agony,  or  egotist  opposition,  systemati- 
cal and  tormenting,  weakens  and  consumes  it.  The  crisis 
is  sometimes  the  only  means  of  salvation ;  and,  if  obliged 
to  resort  to  it,  the  greatest  danger  consists  in  retarding  it. 
If  the  pohtical  chief  is  constantly  struck  with  repeated 
blows, — if  even  the  attacks  are  not  very  grave,  they  ener- 
vate and  stupify  him,  and  may  in  the  end  so  derange  his 
organization,  that  the  vital  strength  of  the  heart  may  suf- 
fer from  it.  .  .  .  The  directorial  epoch,  of  which  I  here  re- 
trace the  remembrance,  and  the  epoch  of  1830,  offer  two 
striking  examples  of  the  different  social  maladies.  The 
directory,  exposed  to  incessant  attacks,  resisted  as  well  as 
it  could;  but,  weakened  and  languishing,  it  vegetated  more 
than  it  governed;  and  the  republic,  fallen  into  a  state  of 
marasmus,  was  near  the  moment  of  expiring  beneath  the 
Tartar  pikes  of  Suwarrow.  In  1830,  on  the  contrary,  by  a 
vigorous  and  rapid  movement,  they  changed  the  chief  who 
had  broken  the  fundamental  compact  of  his  authority,  and 
whom,  to  the  eve  of  that  change,  they  had  not  refused  all 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  73 

support  and  power.  They  changed ;  and  that  crisis,  if  it 
had  received  the  sanction  of  a  universal  voting,  would  be 
the  most  irreproachable  crisis  of  the  revolution.  Our  long 
opposition  of  1798  was,  I  believe,  fatal  to  France,  by  weak- 
ening the  chiefs  in  the  moment  of  danger.  We  ought  to 
have  aided  them,  or  have  changed  them  sooner.  The  op- 
position of  1830  was  wiser  than  we  ;  it  left  to  the  govern- 
ment the  means  of  strength  and  defence  to  the  last  hour ; 
but  the  resolution  to  overturn  it,  if  it  persisted  in  error, 
augmented  silently  in  every  heart.  The  crisis  once  desired 
by  the  majority — the  famous  ordinances — was  only  the  oc- 
casion, well  chosen  and  quickly  taken  advantage  of.  Let 
us  be  better  advised  than  to  endeavour  to  weaken  the  gov- 
ernment at  an  unseasonable  time.  Let  us  aid  it  as  long  as 
we  keep  it,  that  it  may  be  strong,  not  for  itself,  but  that  its 
weakness  may  not  touch  the  heart  of  the  state.  If  it  be- 
comes guilty  of  an  outrage  against  the  sovereign,  of  which 
it  is  only  the  first  magistrate,  let  opinion,  inevitable  and'' 
supreme  strength  of  civilized  societies,  arise  and  increase, 
calm  and  terrible,  in  the  bottom  of  all  hearts,  until  the  day 
marked  by  Providence  ;  or,  become  general,  and  then  irre- 
sistible, it  shall  reveal  itself  of  a  sudden  in  one  of  those 
bursts  of  thunder  which  clear  the  horizon.  While  we  await 
that  day — manet  altamente  repostum. 

But  opinion  is  often  a  long  time  before  it  becomes  gen- 
eral. Without  doubt,  it  is  very  fortunate  for  human  society; 
for  if  the  opinion  of  an  entire  people  was  as  easy  to  be 
formed  as  that  of  an  individual,  we  should  have  revolutions 
every  week.  If  what  every  faction,  every  writer,  calls 
intrepidly  public  opinion,  was  actually  such,  we  should 
have  a  thousand  public  opinions  for  one.  Wlien  the  true 
public  opinion  is  formed,  nobody  can  be  deceived ;  it  has 
no  occasion  for  commentaries — it  shines  like  the  sun.  We 
must  await  it,  for  it  is  the  sovereign ;  it  is  the  only  master 
upon  earth  to  whom  our  political  symbol  has  engaged  us. 
To  act  against  the  supreme  master  is  a  crime  :  to  take  its 
name  in  vain  is  a  sacrilege.  Have  we  acted  with  the  con- 
viction that  we  have  followed  his  intentions,  although  not 
yet  expressed  ?  Then  our  absolute  duty,  of  which  the  suc- 
cess cannot  enfranchise  us,  is  to  submit  our  actions  to  the 
universal  vote,  the  only  sincere  expression  of  universal 
opinion.  As  long  as  that  opinion  does  not  agree  with 
yours,  resign  yourselves  that  you  are  going  on  before  ani 
behind,  to  the  right  and  to  the  left ;  if  you  are  not  with  it, 
cease  to  take  its  name,  and  conclude  with  sincerity,  that  it 
is  not  you,  but  the  government,  which  still  represents  the  su- 
preme opinion  of  the  only  master  to  whom  yo'.  pay  homage. 

Happy  is  the  government  that  reposes  upon  so  solid  a 
basis ;  it  need  no  longer  fear  the  factions  of  any  sort  or 
colour.  This  situation — is  it  that  of  the  government  of  our 
country  ? 


74  MEMOIRS    OF 


Month  of  Brumaire,  year  7.     From  the  22d  of  October  to  ths 

22d  of  November,  1798. 

Barbarous  Law  against  the  transported  of  Fructidor— and  the  fine  words 
of  the  Orator  Rochon— Endeavours  of  the  Jacobin  party  against  the 
Priests — Troubles  in  several  Departments — Incertitude  of  the  Legisla- 
tive Body. 

I.    THE    POWERS. 

The  situation  of  the  powers,  with  regard  to  us,  presented 
no  change  in  the  month  of  Brumaire,  except  the  entry  of 
the  Austrians  in  the  country  of  the  Grisons.  The  imperial 
minister  had  offered  several  times  the  intervention  of  his 
master  to  protect  the  government  of  Coire  against  the  party 
who  desired  the  reunion  of  the  league  of  the  Grisons  with 
the  Helvetic  confederation.  This  party  announced  that 
the  French  troops  were  marching  towards  Rhette.  Austria 
thought  the  time  was  opportune  to  awaken.  This  time  she 
was  beforehand  with  us. 

Our  president  thought  of  retiring  to  Zurich.  The  French 
column,  which  occupied  Shaf  housen,  prepared  to  march  to- 
wards the  Grison  leagues,  where  they  expected  to  have  a 
serious  conflict,  when  a  courier  from  Paris  carried  an  or- 
der not  to  consider  the  invasion  of  Coire  by  the  Austrians 
as  a  hostile  measure.  The  directory  feigned  to  be  content- 
ed with  the  assurance  which  terminated  the  declaration  of 
the  Austrian  general.  "  The  general  commander  notifies, 
that  the  entry  of  the  imperial  and  royal  troops  is  amicable, 
pacific,  and  protective.  He  protests  that  it  has  no  other 
object  than  to  protect  with  perfect  accord,  and  after  their 
own  wishes,  the  actual  government  legally  established." 

The  exalted  part  of  the  councils  disapproved  of  the  mod- 
eration of  the  directory.  We  were  spoiled  by  two  years 
of  victories ;  and  we  found  it  very  bad  for  our  enemies  to 
do  once  that  which  we  did  every  day.  It  was,  however, 
perfectly  evident  that  the  change  in  the  attitude  Of  Aus- 
tria announced  the  resolution  to  provoke  the  renewal  of 
hostilities.  The  Russian  army  was  in  the  heart  of  Ger- 
many. 

The  insurgents  of  Ireland,  far  from  being  discouraged, 
regained  new  strength.  Several  of  our  vessels  departed 
without  accord  from  Brest  and  Rochefort,  and,  by  showing 
themselves  upon  the  coast,  sustained  them  with  the  hope 
of  a  better  regulated  disembarkment ;  but  the  coasts,  cover- 
ed  everywhere    with   English  troops,  were   inaccessible. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  75 

Superior  fleets  surrounded  our  vessels,  and  the  Le  Hoche, 
battered  with  the  cannon  of  five  of  the  enemy's  vessels, 
surrendered  only  after  prodigies  of  valour  and  intrepidity. 
The  insurgents  had  no  resource  left  but  to  intrench  them- 
selves in  their  retreats.  There  was  but  one  cry  in  Paris 
upon  the  cause  of  these  disasters.  No  one  was  ignorant 
that  the  delay  of  funds  had  prevented  the  squadron  of  Bom- 
part  to  set  sail  at  the  same  time  as  that  of  Savary,  and  to 
land  in  that  part  of  Ireland  that  the  English  had  not  yet  had 
time  to  put  in  a  state  of  defence.  If  those  funds  had 
been  expedited  a  few  days  sooner,  it  would  have  rendered 
the  affairs  of  Ireland  very  problematic.  The  success  of 
England  may  be  attributed  to  the  slowness  and  improvi- 
dence of  the  directory,  as  much  as  to  the  rapidity  of  the 
General  Cornwallis. 

II.    THE  ALLIED  REPUBLICS. 

Among  the  allied  republics,  the  Cisalpine  alone  occupi- 
ed us  seriously.  The  General  Brune,  who  had  taken  the 
command  of  our  army,  disapproved  of  the  innovations  and 
the  choice  of  the  ambassador  Trouve.  To  appease  the  dis- 
contentment, he  determined  upon  changing  every  thing, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  new  ambassador,  Fouche  de 
Nantes.  They  wrote  to  us  from  Milan:  "We  no  longer 
knov/  who  we  are,  where  we  are  going,  or  who  to  confide 
in.  All  is  again  overturned  in  our  republic.  This  morning 
the  gates  of  Milan  were  shut,  and  we  learned  that  a  part  of 
our  representatives  had  given  in  their  resignation,  demand- 
ed by  the  general-in-chief  of  the  army  of  Italy,  and  that 
they  were  replaced  by  those  who,  not  being  willing  to  ac- 
knowledge the  constitution  of  Trouve,  had  been  put  aside. 
Three  of  our  directors  are  equally  forced  to  turn  out :  con- 
firmed only  a  few  weeks  since  by  the  French  directory, 
they  were  far  from  expecting  this  disgrace.  They  do  not 
know  to  whom  they  are  to  attribute  this  sudden  resolution, 
so  contrary  to  the  last  events.  This  nobility  has  thrown  us 
into  the  greatest  incertitude.  It  is  well  calculated  to  favour 
the  plots  of  Austria.  They  must  end  by  consulting  the  Cis- 
alpine people,  if  they  wish  to  satisfy  reasonable  people." 

We  were  as  much  astonished  at  Paris  as  they  were  at 
Milan.  I  had  already  announced  that  I  should  demand  a 
secret  committee  to  call  upon  the  directory,  when  we  were 
informed  that  the  changes  of  Brune  were  disapproved  of, 
and  that,  to  put  an  end  to  all  these  divisions,  they  were  go- 
ing to  consult  the  Cisalpine  people  upon  the  new  o-onstitu- 
tion  that  had  been  given  by  the  ambassador  Trouve.  That 
measure,  by  which  they  ought  to  have  begun,  caused  all 
complaints  to  cease.  Those  whom  Brune  had  deprived  of 
their  employments  were  restored  to  them.    The  municipal 


76  MEMOIR?   OP 

assemblies  united,  accepted,  by  a  very  great  majority,  the 
new  charter,  and  then  all  pretext  for  discontent  was  at  an 
end.  It  is  because  the  people  are  sovereign,  that  they  can 
choose  the  worst  party,  and  that  no  one  has  the  right  to  im- 
pose the  best,  when  they  are  contented  with  that  which 
they  consider  good,  nor  the  good,  when  they  prefer  the 
worst.  That  voting  of  the  Cisalpine  caused  me  to  regret 
my  opposition  to  the  directorial  innovations. 

III.   THE   A.RM1ES. 

The  General  Jourdan  had  quitted  us  for  the  army.  Cham- 
pionnet  and  Macdonald  commanded  in  the  southern  part  of 
Italy.  Joubert  was  sent  to  Milan  to  replace  Brune,  and  he 
was  named  general  of  our  army  of  Holland.  He  whom 
Napoleon  had  named  the  child  of  victory,  Massena,  went  to 
Switzerland  to  await  the  Russians.  Preparations  upon  all 
the  lines  of  operations  took  place  on  both  sides. 

• 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

I  DO  not  speak  so  much  of  the  council  of  ancients,  as  of 
the  council  of  five  hundred  ;  because,  as  I  was  a  member 
of  the  last,  I  knew  better  what  passed.     The  sentiment 
which  predominated  among  the  ancients  was  that  of  the 
insufficiency  of  the  constitution  of  the  year  3.     Sieyes  had 
signalized  its  deficiency  of  equilibrium  between  the  pow- 
ers as  the  indubitable  cause  of  new  troubles.     The  18th 
Fructidor  had  confirmed  his  foresight,  and  to  which  his  re- 
fusal to  enter  the  directory  had  given  a  greater  influence. 
They  regretted  not  having  paid  greater  attention  to  his  coun- 
sels.    They  complained  of  bis  absence ;  they  felt  vaguely 
that,  in  a  short  time,  they  should  be  forced  into  new  combi- 
nations, and  that  no  person  was  more  capable  than  Sieyes 
to  direct  them.     A  serious  inquietude  upon  the  future  des- 
tiny of  the  republic  troubled  the  council  of  ancients.     That 
inquietude  became  more  sensible,  according  as  the  agitation 
increased  in  the  minds  of  the  young.     They  followed,  how- 
ever, sometimes  our  impulsion,  all  the  time  fearing  the  rev- 
olutionary exaltation,  towards  which  we  were  driven  by  the 
new  war,  which  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  averting. 
That  exaltation  manifested  itself  in  a  manner  not  very  hon- 
ourable upon  the  subject  of  the  transported  in  Fructidor. 
The  greatest  part  of  these  victims  died  in  the  deserts  of  Si- 
namari :  four  or  five  only  had  escaped  from  the  dreadful 
agony  of  so  atrocious  an  exile,  by  flying  to  Surinam,  where 
the  Dutch  had  received  them ;  and  from  thence  they  took 
refuge  in  London.    Pichegru  was  among  the  number,  whose 
treason  had  been  undeniably  proved  by  the  papers  which 
Moreau  himself  had  seized  and  delivered  up  to  the  direct- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  77 

ory;  but  among  the  fugitives  was  also  the  director  Barthe- 
iiemi,  who  the  first  liad  signed  treaties  of  peace  in  the  name 
of  the  repubhc — Barthelemi,  whose  integrity,  moderation, 
and  pacific  glory,  merited  from  his  ancient  colleagues  re- 
spect and  clemency.  Another  of  the  proscribed,  whose  no- 
ble and  simple  character  honoured  the  council  of  ancients, 
Barbe  Marbois,  had  refused  to  escape,  that  he  might  not 
compromise  the  fortune  of  his  family.  The  escape  of 
some  of  the  transported  irritated  the  directory,  and  they 
brought  upon  the  carpet  a  new  project  of  law  that  had  been 
presented  after  the  18th  Fructidor,  and  which  they  had 
abandoned.  They  came  to  propose  to  us  to  assimilate  with 
the  emigres,  the  transported  xoho  had  concealed  themselves  to 
avoid  transportation,  or  who  had  escaped  from  the  place  of  their 
transportation,  except  that  ivithin  the  space  of  two  months  they 
presented  themselves  to  the  French  authorities  to  learn  the 
place  of  their  future  transportation.  And  the  penalty  of  the 
emigrants  was  death  !  1  abstained  from  voting,  although 
the  whole  of  the  opposition  united  with  the  directorials. 
That  law,  worthy  of  1793,  passed  almost  unanimously  in 
the  council  of  five  hundred,  and  in  a  great  majority  of  the 
ancients !  In  that  last  council,  several  noble  voices  were 
raised  in  favour  of  justice  and  humanity.  Among  us  one 
single  orator,  the  intrepid  Rouchon,  dared  speak  for  the 
proscribed.  He  braved  the  cries  and  the  outrages,  and 
sustained  alone  against  all,  during  several  weeks,  a  com- 
bat in  which  all  the  glory  was  for  the  vanquished.  In 
expiation  of  the  silent  neutrality  I  had  kept  in  that 
circumstance,  and  with  which  I  afterAvard  reproached 
myself,  I  will  cite  some  of  the  eloquent  words  of  the 
orator  Rouchon. 

"  Representatives  of  the  people — A  month  after  the  18th 
Fructidor,  that  is  to  say,  at  an  epoch  near  to  that  day,  the 
project  of  law  that  is  now  proposed  was  rejected  as  useless 
and  unjust,  as  contrary  to  the  constitution,  as  revolutionary  ! 
....  And  a  year  afterward  it  is  reproduced  at  the  discus- 
sion !  This  project  contains  the  constraint,  the  confisca- 
tion, the  permanence  of  the  penalty  ;  and  with  regard  to  tliose 
persons  whom  you  recall,  they  have  never  been  judged. 
It  is  as  unjust  as  it  is  without  example,  to  ordain  a  man  to 
return  to  present  himself  for  execution!  I  know  that  the 
grand  signor  sends  the  cord  to  the  pacha  with  whom  he  is 
discontented,  to  the  vizier  who  displeases  him  ;  but  I  have 
never  heard  that  he  commands  his  victims  to  come  them- 
selves and  take  the  fatal  cord.  A  coup  d'etat  should  not 
drag  after  it  but  a  momentary  penalty.  Never  should  a  per- 
petual punishment  result  from  it.  Do  you  remember  what 
Condorcet  had  put  in  the  constitution  \  '  A  penalty  pronounc- 
ed as  a  measure  of  public  welfare,  should  never  extend  ieyond 
six  months.''    No  tyrant,  not  even  Nero,  ever  thought  of 

G3 


78  MEMOIRS   OF 

punishing  a  man  because  he  did  not  come  to  demand  liis 
own  execution ;  and  your  reporter,  in  proposing  such  a 
code  against  our  ancient  colleagues,  pronounces  at  every 
phrase  the  words  of  justice,  of  humanity,  of  clemency !  I 
must  own  that  my  hair  rises  upon  my  head.  ...  Is  it  then 
with  a  sardonic  laugh  that  they  plunge  the  poniard  1 

"  At  these  words  1  am  answered  with  bursts  of  laughter. 
.  .  .  Representatives  of  the  French  people,"  cried  Rouchon  : 
"  I  could  imagine  your  laughing  if  the  question  was  to  par- 
don ;  but  I  cannot  conceive  what  you  mean  when  it  is  a 
question  of  punishment." 

They  thought  to  reply  to  Rouchon  in  speaking  of  the  ex- 
cesses committed  by  the  royalists  during  the  reaction,  as  if 
Barthelemi  and  his  companions  had  organized  the  bands  of 
the  companies  of  the  sun  !  They  reproached  the  transported 
fugitives  for  having  taken  refuge  in  England,  as  if  there  had 
been  so  many  free  countries  upon  the  earth  where  one  was 
sure  to  meet  with  an  asylum  against  all  t3^rannies.  But  such 
was  ever  the  pitiless  logic  of  factions  ;  and  factions  rise  nat- 
urally more  violent  in  moments  of  alarm. 

Certainly  their  alarms  were  not  without  a  motive  ;  besides 
the  menacing  attitude  of  the  foreign  powers,  the  depreda- 
tions in  the  west  began  again  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  bands 
of  armed  rebels  overran  the  environs  of  Brussels,  of  Tirel- 
mont,  and  the  Luxembourg.  They  granted  to  the  execu- 
tive power  all  it  demanded  ;  the  taxes  upon  the  patents,  the 
roads,  the  gates,  and  windows,  and  upon  tobacco  !  The  oc- 
trois, or  city  gates,  were  accepted  as  soon  as  proposed.  But 
it  too  often  happens  that  patriotic  enthusiasm  does  not  know 
how  to  be  moderate,  and  they  pass  a  law  of  banishment 
with  as  much  coolness  as  a  financial  law  ;  they  would  at  any 
price  add  to  the  power  of  the  government.  They  put  in 
force  the  laws  against  emigration.  At  length  the  opposi- 
tion, that  is  to  say,  the  constitutional  and  Jacobin,  voted  for 
some  days  with  the  most  devoted  partisans  of  the  directory. 
The  Jacobins  endeavoured,  even  at  the  end  of  the  month, 
to  profit  by  the  occasion.  Briot  prepared,  in  the  name  of 
the  commission,  to  assimilate  the  emigrants  with  the  priests 
condemned  to  transportation,  Avho  concealed  themselves,  or 
who  entered  France.  They  commanded  them  to  present 
themselves  directly  to  submit  to  the  penalty.  .  .  It  was  the 
continuation  of  the  new  law  against  those  who  were  van- 
quished in  Fructidor.  Briot  gave  these  motives  for  the 
proposition  of  death  :  "  Do  you  doubt,"  said  he,  "  of  the 
coalition  of  the  refractory  priests  with  the  royalists  and  the 
emigrants  1  Cast  your  eyes  upon  the  nine  united  depart- 
ments, at  this  moment  torn  and  bleeding — do  they  not  cry 
out  to  you  that  it  is  the  priests  who  have  kindled  the  fire 
of  rebellion,  and  who  want  to  call  the  English  ?  Do  you 
not  hear  the  tocsin  resound  in  the  country  1    Its  mournful 


LTJCIEN   BONAPARTE.  79 

sound  announces  that  the  blood  of  Frenchmen  flows,  shed 
by  the  hands  of  Frenchmen.  The  defenders  of  the  country 
are  murdered,  and  the  unfortunate  cultivators  fall  beneath 
their  blows ;  while  the  cowardly  author  of  those  troubles, 
with  hands  uplifted  to  heaven,  prays  that  blood  may  still 
flow,  provided  that  he  may  be  preserved  to  create  new 
crimes." 

Briot,  an  ardent  mind,  and  incorruptible  patriot,  forgot 
that  the  persecuted  priest,  pursued  even  to  the  bottom  of 
his  conscience,  was  not  the  author,  but  the  victim  of  our 
troubles;  he  did  not  perceive  that  in  rendering  the  persecu- 
tion more  cruel,  they  augmented  those  troubles  which  they 
desired  to  appease.  His  proposition  was  adjourned,  but 
they  ordered  the  impression  of  his  discourse  in  three  copies. 

Thus,  upon  the  eve  of  a  new  coalition,  our  march  became 
always  more  uncertain.  In  Vendemiaire  we  refused  to  the 
government  the  nomination  of  some  insignificant  employ- 
ments. ...  In  Brumaire  we  abandoned  to  them,  without  re- 
morse, the  fate  of  the  transported.  We  went  alternately, 
from  an  outrageous  defiance  to  an  unlimited  confidence. 
Public  opinion,  tossed  from  side  to  side,  retired  from  us. 
The  faults  altogether  of  the  administrative  measures,  the 
false  direction  and  the  irresolution  of  the  legislative  meas- 
ures, carried  away,  step  by  step,  the  directorial  republic,  to- 
wards a  state  of  incurable  languor.  Scarcely  arrived  at  her 
fourth  year,  she  had  already  the  first  features  of  decrepitude. 


Month  of  Frimaire  and  Nivose,  year  7.     From  the  22d  of  Nov.j 
1798,  to  the  2lst  of  Jan.,  1799. 

Two  Russian  Fleets  in  the  Mediterranean — Censure  of  the  Newspapers 

Prorogued. 

I.    THE    POWERS. 

The  diplomatic  influence  of  Sieyes  maintained  always 
the  court  of  Prussia  in  neutrality.  The  other  great  powers 
of  the  continent  had  finished  their  preparations,  but  had  not 
yet  declared  themselves  ;  but  they  gave  the  signal  to  Naples 
and  Turin.  The  King  of  Naples,  encouraged  by  the  num- 
ber of  soldiers  that  he  enrolled,  and  by  the  renown  of  Gen- 
eral Mack,  dared  to  commence  hostilities.  He  summoned 
all  the  French  to  quit  the  Roman  States,  republicanized 
and  usurped  since  the  peace  of  Campo  Formio,  and  never  ac- 
knowledged hy  his  Sicilian  Majesty,  nor  by  his  august  ally,  the 
emperor  and  king.  The  innovations  made  at  Milan  by  our 
ambassadors,  were  represented  in  several  writings  of  the 
civilians  of  Naples  as  violating  the  state  of  peace.     Upon 


80  MEMOIRS   OP 

the  French  replying  in  the  negative,  the  Roman  States  were 
invaded  by  all  the  Neapolitan  bands.  Championnet  evac- 
uated momentarily  Rome,  where  he  left  a  strong  garrison 
at  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  He  retired  into  the  Apennines 
to  concentrate  the  few  forces  that  he  had  at  his  disposal. 
He  let  Mack  engage  heedlessly,  but  separately,  his  numer- 
ous columns,  and  drove  the  aggressing  monarch  to  the  lim- 
its of  his  kingdom,  that  he  was  not  destined  long  to  keep. 
At  the  same  moment  that  the  great  army  of  Mack  retired 
in  disorder,  a  Neapolitan  division,  imported  by  an  English 
fleet,  landed  at  Leghorn,  and  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany 
protested  diplomatically  or  sincerely  against  it.  As  for  the 
King  of  Sardinia,  he  had  not  commenced  hostilities,  but  the 
Austrians,  masters  of  the  Grison  leagues,  were  spread  to 
the  limits  even  of  Piedmont,  whose  evil  dispositions  began 
to  show  themselves  openly,  by  the  frequent  murders  of  our 
isolated  soldiers.  Our  safety  in  the  south  of  Italy  exacted 
that  they  should  secure  the  Alps ;  and  the  directory  pro- 
posed to  us  in  the  same  message  to  declare  war  against  the 
kings  of  Naples  and  Sardinia,  whom  they  equally  accused 
of  having  broken  the  peace.  That  double  declaration  uni- 
ted all  the  votes.  We  were  all  of  us  tired  with  so  long  an 
uncertainty.  We  were  not  long  in  felicitating  ourselves 
upon  our  success,  upon  learning  that  the  two  dethroned 
kings  had  taken  refuge  in  the  islands  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia. 
The  Russian  vessels  preceded  the  hostihties  of  Su war- 
row.  A  fleet  of  that  nation,  united  with  the  English,  block- 
aded the  coast  of  Holland,  while  another,  united  with  the 
Turks,  attacked  the  Venetian  Isles  that  had  become  French. 
Cerigo  and  Zante  were  taken.  Corfu  repulsed  all  the  ef- 
forts of  the  Turkish  Russian  fleet.  The  great  statesman 
who  then  presided  over  the  destinies  of  England,  while  he 
allied  his  flag  with  that  of  Russia,  must  have  meditated 
more  than  once  upon  this  simultaneous  and  double  appari- 
tion of  two  Muscovite  fleets  in  the  seas  of  Holland  and 
Greece.  Pitt  could  not,  without  doubt,  observe  that  phe- 
nomenon without  anxiety  for  the  future.  .  .  What  would  he 
say — what  would  he  do  ?  ....  If  he  could  see  the  British 
influence  annulled  at  Constantinople,  and  the  Czar  domina- 
ting over  the  Bosphorus,  and  excluding  the  British  vessels 
from  the  Black  Sea!  .... 

II.    THE    ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

The  state  of  war  had  suspended,  by  the  fact,  all  exercise 
of  national  authority  in  the  Italian  republics.  Our  generals 
commanded  exclusively  at  Genoa,  and  Milan,  and  in  the 
Roman  States.  The  existence  of  these  republics  was 
again  brought  in  question. 

Switzerland,  endowed  with  a  more  ancient  strength,  and 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  81 

an  independence  whjch  she  had  known  how  to  defend  till 
that  epoch,  kept  herself  in  the  position  in  which  our  last 
treaty  of  alliance  had  placed  her  in  face  of  us.  She  armed 
eighteen  thousand  men,  who  were  to  join  our  troops. 

Holland  had  new  dissensions  to  combat.  Brabangon  aux- 
iliaries, united  with  Dutch  officers  who  had  emigrated,  en- 
tered the  Batavian  territory.  The  anarchical  party  who  had 
sent  for  them,  had  framed  a  plot  to  overturn  the  govern- 
ment. The  chiefs  were  arrested.  It  was  to  the  French 
directory  that  the  Batavian  directory  owed  the  discovery 
of  this  conspiracy.  The  Anglo-Russian  fleet  which  cruised 
along  the  coast  was  probably  not  a  stranger  to  these 
movements. 

III.    THE    ARMIES. 

The  army  of  Championnet  re-entered  in  triumph  at 
Rome,  and  left  it  immediately  to  take  possession  of  the 
kingdom  of  Naples.  It  was  but  a  military  march  ;  from  the 
deck  of  his  vessel,  the  fugitive  monarch  could  see  our  col- 
ours peacefully  received  in  his  beautiful  capital.  Leghorn, 
scarcely  invaded  by  his  troops,  was  evacuated  immediately 
in  haste.  The  army  of  Joubert  took  possession  of  all  Pied- 
mont without  obstacle.  They  organized  a  provisionary 
government  at  Turin  ;  and  also,  after  the  departure  of  the 
king  for  Sardinia,  the  Piedmontese  troops  entered  into  the 
service  of  France. 

The  army  of  Massena  was  posted  upon  Mont  St.  Gothard 
and  St.  Bernard,  and  its  communications  with  the  army  of 
Turin  were  assured. 

The  news  from  Eg}'pt  was  always  favourable.  We  heard 
of  the  revolt  at  Cairo  that  was  so  quickly  appeased,  and  the 
successive  defeats  of  the  Mamelukes,  and  the  preparations 
of  Napoleon  for  the  invasion  of  Syria. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

We  were  alarmed  with  regard  to  the  ancient  Vendee. 
The  directory  was  called  upon  to  know  what  extraordinary 
measures  would  be  required  in  those  departments.  They 
replied  that  the  existing  laws  were  sufficient.  This  confi- 
dence reassured  the  councils. 

Belgium  gave  more  uneasiness  at  that  time  to  the  direct- 
ory than  La  Vendee.  Two  serious  battles  had  taken  place 
in  the  environs  of  Antwerp  and  Enghien,  in  which  several 
hundreds  of  rebels  and  soldiers  had  fallen.  Some  few  days 
after,  Louvain  beheld  a  more  serious  combat.  Brussels  was 
put  in  a  state  of  siege ;  and  the  calm  was  not  estabhshed 
without  shedding  a  great  deal  of  French  blood.  Many  per- 
sons thought,  in  the  legislative  body,  that  these  deplorable 


82  MEMOIRS    OF 

Struggles  could  only  be  attributed  to  the  persecution  exer- 
cised against  the  priests.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  pretended 
that  the  persecution  was  not  sufficiently  rigorous ;  and  the 
proposition  of  Briot  against  the  transported  priests  was  sub- 
mitted to  discussion.  Violence  thought  to  drag  weakness 
after  it ;  but  the  discussion  was  not  more  decisive  than  it 
had  been  in  the  preceding  month,  and  a  new  adjournment, 
without  any  fixed  term,  was  pronounced. 

Briot  was  not  discouraged;  he  had  several  times  attack- 
ed the  elections  of  the  judges  chosen  by  the  people  in  the 
years  4  and  5.  He  recommenced  his  attack ;  our  tribunals, 
according  to  him,  were  composed  of  royalists.  The  revision 
of  all  the  judiciary  choices  appeared  to  him  to  be  urgent. 
The  sitting  was  stormy,  and  some  votes  only  decided  that 
they  should  not  attempt  to  touch  the  independence  of  jus- 
tice. I  voted  against  Briot,  but  I  continued  to  keep  silence. 
I  felt  that  we  ought  to  support  the  government,  which  was 
menaced  in  the  interior  and  the  exterior ;  and,  on  the  other 
side,  I  felt  a  repugnance  at  granting  an  extraordinary  pow- 
er to  persons  who  served  so  ill  those  powers  which  they 
had  already  received.  Several  of  my  colleagues,  uncer- 
tain, as  well  as  myself,  how  to  act,  showed  themselves 
more  rarely  at  the  tribune.  We  waited  impatiently  the 
epoch  that  was  fixed  for  the  replacing  one  of  the  five  di- 
rectors, whom  chance  obliged  each  year  to  quit  the  direct- 
ory. We  purposed  naming  Sieyes,  and  we  trusted  that  he 
would  give  to  the  executive  power  more  wisdom  and  sta- 
bility. 

Our  political  conscience  was  put  to  the  test  in  the  capi- 
tal question  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,  which  they  discuss- 
ed about  the  end  of  the  month  several  times.  They  wanted 
to  put  to  the  order  of  the  day  the  penal  law  proposed  by 
the  commission,  of  which  I  formed  a  part,  with  a  view  of 
destroying  the  dictatorship  of  the  police  upon  the  newspa- 
pers. I  had  taken  an  active  part  in  this  project  of  law  ;  but 
how  refuse  the  evidence  ?  How  repulse  the  demands  of 
the  directorials  ?  Could  the  royahst  and  Jacobin  journals 
recommence  their  diatribes  against  the  government  in  the 
midst  of  the  war,  and  the  insurrections  in  Belgium  1  For 
my  part,  I  thought  it  right  to  yield ;  and  I  voted  for  the  ad- 
journment of  our  project  of  the  penal  law.  The  ancient 
republics,  in  the  time  of  great  danger,  did  not  content  them- 
selves with  partial  measures  of  dictatorship ;  they  resigned 
themselves  to  the  dictatorship  of  a  single  man.  Caveani 
consules  ne  respubUca  detrimentum  capiat.  We  abandoned  to 
the  government,  till  the  end  of  the  year,  the  censure  of 
the  journals. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  83 


Month  of  Pluviose,     From  the  21st  of  January  to  the  20th  of 

February,  1799. 

The  union  of  Ireland  considered  with  regard  to  the  English  Constitution 
— My  Speech  against  the  Tax  upon  Salt — That  Tax  rejected  a  third 
time,  after  a  sharp  discussion. 

►  I.    THE    POWERS. 

r 

In  the  United  States  of  America,  the  prevailing  opinion 
was  always  unfavourable  to  France.  The  Congress  ap- 
proved of  the  military  preparations  of  the  President  Adams, 
and  recommended  the  continuation  of  them.  The  measures 
of  the  directory  did  not  merit  so  mu(^h  repulsion ;  we  all 
thought  in  the  legislative  body,  that  the  susceptibility  and 
the  pride  of  the  United  States  was  excessive.  Might  we 
not  at  this  moment  address  the  same  complaint  to  our 
friends  of  the  New  World  1  But  the  most  essential  point  was 
then,  as  it  is  now,  to  avoid  the  snare  which  was  nearly 
bringing  about  the  scandal  of  discord  between  two  great 
nations  that  ought  to  be  inseparable. 

The  progress  of  the  conferences  of  Rastadt  were  in  an 
inverse  sense  to  the  preparatives  for  the  war.  Austria,  to 
prolong  her  stratagems,  sent  two  ambassadors  to  Paris  :  these 
new  negotiators  did  not  blush  to  complain  of  the  events  at 
Naples.  .  .  It  was  carrying  the  diplonintic  courage  very  far. 
Austria  forgot  that  not  only  the  King  of  Naples  had  been  the 
aggressor,  but  that  it  was  an  Aus^trian  general  who  had 
struck  the  first  blows.  At  length  they  ceased  to  form 
illusions.  The  negotiations  of  peace  no  longer  deceived 
anybody ;  but  nobody  would  have  dared  to  suspect  the 
outrage  which,  in  a  few  days;  struck  our  negotiators. 

Oiie  of  the  greatest  measures  of  Pitt  occupied  England 
and  Ireland.  The  project  of  the  union  of  the  two  kingdoms 
began  to  be  proposed  to  the  parliaments  of  London  and 
Dublin.  This  project,  rejected  at  Dublin,  raised  so  serious 
a  discontent  against  its  partisans,  that  their  safety  was  con- 
stantly menaced.  They  feared  at  one  moment  a  general 
revolt,  and  to  appease  people's  minds,  they  spread  the 
report  that  the  project  was  adjourned  for  a  year.  That 
report  was  soon  contradicted  by  the  discussions  of  the 
British  parliament,  where  the  illustrious  Sheridan  displayed 
the  highest  eloquence.  Several  times  he  combated  the 
powerful  minister,  who  replied  to  his  eloquence  by  a  reason 
of  state,  calm  and  profoimd. 

"  What  will  become  of  Ireland  V  cried  Sheridan  ;  "  she 
will  no  longer  be  a  country."  "  Ireland,"  replied  Pitt,  "  will 
become  the  country  of  England  ;  she  will  make  one  common 
country  with  us  and  Scotland ;  she  will  partake  of  all  the 
good  that  we  enjoy."     No  orator  was  more  beloved  among 


84  -  MEMOIRS    OF 

US  than  Sheridan:  the  admiration  of  France  was  divided 
between  him  and  Fox.  No  man  was  more  detested  than 
the  son  of  Chatham,  to  whom  all  our  evils,  whatever  they 
might  be,  were  attributed.  The  project,  therefore,  of  a  union 
was  considered  at  Paris  as  a  sacrilegious  enterprise,  against 
which  they  had  not  sufficient  anathemas.  By  that  egotist 
sentiment,  from  which  no  one  is  exempted,  we  condemned 
in  our  enemy  that  which  we  admired  in  the  convention,  the 
reunion  of  all  the  provinces  under  one  law.  We  who  had 
pursued  the  federalism  even  to  the  scaffold,  and  whose 
political  symbol  was  the  republic  one  and  indivisible ;  we  would 
no  longer  see  patriotism  among  our  neighbours,  but  in  their 
divisions;  nor  good  sense,  but  in  federalism.  All  our 
sympathies  were  for  the  adversaries  of  the  union.  Without 
doubt  we  should  not  be  sincere  if  we  did  not  appreciate  in  a 
different  manner  at  this  moment  our  opinions  of  that  epoch ; 
without  doubt,  in  shaking  off  the  prejudices  and  hatreds  of 
that  period,  it  must  be  owned,  that  all  the  objections  which 
they  heaped  together  against  the  great  measure,  signified 
very  little.  But  is  there  not  another  manner  of  considering 
the  question?  If  the  union  offered,  with  regard  to  the 
present,  only  an  aspect  of  concord  and  strength,  did  it  leave 
no  inquietude  for  the  future?  And  the  great  statesman, 
who  did  not  foresee  that  future,  is  he  without  blame  ?  It  is 
under  that  point  of  view  that  the  union  of  England  with 
Ireland  has  not  been  sufficiently  considered ;  and  I  beg  my 
readers  to  permit  me  to  pause  for  a  moment. 

A  conquered  province  is  governed  by  the  conquering 
power,  according  to  particular  laws  ;  or  else  she  is  united  ta 
that  power  of  which  she  becomes  a  part.  As  long  as  she  is 
treated  as  a  conquered  country,  it  is  quite  natural  that  her 
provincial  interests  should  be  sacrificed  to  the  interests  of 
the  conquerors :  "  Vcb  victis.''''  A  good  politic  is  then  satisfied. 
If  they  do  not  abuse  their  victory  sufficiently  to  rekindle  the 
war,  and  if  they  know  how  to  employ  a  mixture  of  force  and 
moderation  in  the  legislative  measures,  with  which  the  van- 
quished have  nothing  to  do  but  to  obey. 

The  conquerors  are  magnanimous  if  they  leave  to  the 
conquered  country  some  of  its  vague  national  forms,  to 
which  the  vanity  of  the  feeble  is  too  happy  to  cling  illusively. 
Such  was  the  state  of  Ireland  before  the  union.  An  active 
inspection,  a  salutary  mistrust,  were  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  that  state  of  affairs.  The  oppression  of  six  mil- 
lions of  Irish  Cathohcs,  forced  to  pay  the  tithes  of  a  Protest- 
ant worship,  was  not  devoid  of  a  certain  relative  justness : 
it  was  a  tribute  to  the  religion  of  the  conquerors.  That  re- 
ligious subjection  of  the  greatest  number  towards  the  church 
of  the  dominant  minority,  was  the  consequence  of  a  political 
subjection.  One  of  those  forces  supported  the  other.  One 
was  perhaps  necessary  to  the  other ;  and  if  it  was  necessary, 


V 

LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  85 

the  political  necessity  absolved  it.  The  Irish  had  not  only- 
been  conquered,  but  despoiled  :  their  lands  had  been  dis- 
tributed to  the  Protestants.  The  priests  had  been  deprived 
of  the  tithes,  as  the  proprietors  had  been  of  their  lands.  A 
conquest,  driven  to  such  terrible  extremities,  could  not  fail 
to  leave  the  most  bitter  remembrances  behind  it.  That  ter- 
rible abuse  of  a  victory  could  not  quickly  be  forgotten.  The 
oppressor,  not  having  the  right,  must  naturally  have  no  other 
support  left  but  the  sword.  In  maintaining  beneath  his  yoke 
those  whom  he  had  stripped,  in  transmitting  to  the  ministers 
of  the  victorious  church  the  tithes  of  the  conquered  church, 
the  la  w  was  not  inconsistent — it  was  the  logic  of  the  strongest. 
But  the  conquered  and  despoiled  population  evinced  its 
discontent  by  alarming  struggles,  of  which  foreign  enemies 
endeavoured  to  profit;  and  the  conquering  power,  for  its 
own  security  for  the  future,  will  treat  as  brothers  those  whom 
it  has  hitherto  oppressed  !  It  is  resolved  to  enfranchise  and 
incorporate  them,  that  they  may  have  no  longer  to  combat 

them Nothing  could  be  better,  if  they  did  not  fail  in 

their  aim — '\{  they  do  all,  absolutely  all  that  they  ought  to  do,  to 
assure  the  affection  of  their  new  brothers.  If  they  will  sell 
the  confiscated  land,  and  the  tithes  of  that  land,  to  those  to 
whom  they  belong ;  or,  at  least,  (as  xMr.  Grey  said  in  the  sit- 
ting of  the  house  of  commons  of  the  14th  February,)  let  the 
union  of  sentiments,  of  interests,  of  hearts,  take  place  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  and  that  they  do  not  confine  them- 
selves to  the  union  of  two  legislative  chambers.  But  if  the 
moral  reconciliation  cannot  take  place,  from  whatever  side 
this  impossibility  may  arise,  the  end  has  failed  ;  the  incorpo- 
ration of  the  conquered  province,  instead  of  becoming  a 
salutary  measure  of  public  welfare,  may  then  become  fatal, 
by  introducing  into  the  state  a  foreign  influence — by  opening, 
as  it  may  be  called,  the  entrails  of  the  political  body  to  a 
hostile  element.  The  Irish  influence  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment v/as  not  foreseen,  or  not  appreciated  as  it  ought  to  have 
been.  That  is  proved  by  the  protestation  of  the  Lords  Hol- 
land, Thanet,  and  King,  (in  the  sitting  of  the  house  of  lords 
of  the  18th  of  April,)  and  by  the  speech  of  Mr.  Fox,  at  the 
whig  club,  of  the  9th  of  May.  The  protestation  of  the  lords 
rested  chiefly  upon  the  violation  of  the  Irish  independence, 
upon  the  insufficiency  of  the  measures  taken  to  calm  the 
troubles,  and  upon  the  enormous  increase  of  influence  for  the 
crown  that  must  result  from  the  union !  The  speech  of  Mr. 
Fox  condemned  with  justice  the  violent  and  arbitrary  means 
employed  in  Ireland  to  oblige  them  to  vote  for  the  ministerial 
measures  ;  but  in  declaring  against  the  project,  neither  the 
protestation  nor  the  discourse  foresaw  thnt  the  result  would 
be  very  different  from  giving  an  increase  to  the  royal  influence. 
In  the  mean  time,  by  not  enfranchising  six  millions  of  Cath- 
olics from  the  Protestant  tithes,  and  by  not  satisfying  other- 

H 


86  MEMOIRS    OF 

wise  the  Catholic  clergy,  could  they  reasonably  expect  to 
satisfy  Ireland  1  I  do  not  say  that  it  was  possible  to  restore 
the  lands  and  the  tithes  to  the  ancient  proprietors ;  but  time 
has  often  more  force  than  justice  :  and  since  a  reason  of 
state,  good  or  bad,  prevented  them  from  completely  repairing 
all  their  past  faults,  why  not  continue  to  contain,  as  they  had 
done,  the  country  which  they  would  not  satisfy  ?  Why,  above 
all,  admit  a  deputation  of  that  discontented  country  to  par- 
take of  the  supreme  power  of  the  British  nation  1  The  great 
majority  of  the  Irish  remaining  disaffectioned  to  the  English 
aristocracy,  in  whom  they  beheld  their  despoilers,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  those  people  must  either  be  unfaithful  to  the 
religious  and  political  sentiments  of  their  constituents,  or 
enemies  of  the  English  constitution,  and,  above  all,  of  that 
class  which  enjoyed  their  spoils.  The  concourse  of  those 
representatives  in  the  British  parliament,  with  the  oblivion 
of  all  the  injustice,  confiscations,  and  intolerance  of  the  con- 
quest, with  the  reconcihation  of  minds  in  Ireland,  would 
have  been  a  measure  of  high  wisdom ;  but  if  they  had  not 
yet  forgotten  those  injuries,  if  the  moral  reconciliation  had 
not  taken  place,  they  should  have  waited,  for  it  would  have 
been  a  hundred  times  better  for  England  to  have  left  the  Irish 
parliament  in  its  island,  than  to  have  exposed  itself  to  behold 
the  day  arrive,  when  the  legislative  balance  in  London  should 
incline  at  the  will  of  the  representatives  of  Dublin.  In  fact, 
do  they  seek  to  learn  from  the  past,  from  whence  is  the 
source  of  that  consumption  that  mines  the  old  aristocratical, 
electoral,  and  monarchical  constitution  of  England  1  An  ob- 
server would  soon  be  convinced  that  the  evil  remounts  to 
the  legislative,  and  not  real  union  of  Ireland  ;  the  most  illus- 
trious and  wisest  defender,  therefore,  of  that  unrivalled  social 
equilibrium,  would  be  the  first  and  real  author  of  weakening 
it.  So  true  it  is,  that  all  human  conceptions  are  but  the 
effect  of  hazard.  And  so  dilRcult  is  the  task  of  expiating 
the  destruction  of  an  entire  nation,  decimated,  despoiled, 
and  pursued,  even  to  the  sanctuary  of  her  conscience  !  ! ! — 
Let  the  proud  conqueror  of  Warsaw  look  at  Ireland.  .  .  .  The 
rehgious  persecutions,  the  confiscations,  the  affronts,  and  the 
scaffold,  produce  soon  or  late  an  impoisoned  fruit.  After  so 
many  years,  England  bears  in  her  own  bosom  the  wound 
which  she  gave  to  Ireland  :  to  cure  that  wound,  the  wisdom 
of  the  thoughtful  is  obscured,  it  hits  at  the  wrong  end  of  its 
calculations:  those  who  have  the  same  interests  divide.  .  .  . 
When  Heaven  chastises,  of  what  avail  is  the  most  skilful 
politic  ? 

I  feel  sensible  that  it  may  appear  very  hardy  in  a  foreigner, 
when  he  dares  to  condemn  one  of  the  greatest  operations  of 
Pitt ;  and  I  hasten  to  observe  that  it  is  as  difficult  to  foresee 
the  future,  as  it  is  easy  to  reason  upon  the  past  and  the 
present,  of  which  the  whole  offers,  under  the  same  coup 


lUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  87 

d'oeil,  the  cause  of  the  effect.  The  future  results  of  a  polit- 
ical organization  depend  upon  so  many  circumstances,  that 
the  most  profound  staiesman  should,  above  all,  recommend 
his  works  to  fortune,  or  to  that  unknown  god  of  the  ancients, 
that  was  probably  the  future.  Did  Pitt,  when  he  called  a 
hundred  of  the  sons  of  Erin  to  Westminster,  absolutely  neg- 
lect to  calculate  the  moral  strength  of  action  that  would  in- 
fluence the  representatives,  upon  the  continuation  of  the  state 
of  disaffection,  of  so  numerous  a  population  1  Or  was  it  his 
intention  to  put  an  end  to  that  state  of  disaffection,  by  recon- 
ciling with  the  Catholic  clergy  ?  Or  did  he,  in  his  calculation 
as  a  legislator,  place  so  high  a  value  upon  the  good  sense  of 
old  constitutional  England,  (whig  or  tory,)  that  he  considered 
the  Irish  influence  but  as  a  fraction  that  might  be  neglected  ? 
....  For  the  honour  of  humanity,  for  the  interest  of  that 
people,  now  become  the  ally  of  France,  of  that  people  where 
reigns  for  all  true  and  equal  liberty,  may  pohcy,  justice,  and 
tolerance,  produce  such  a  reparatory  and  conservative  result, 
that  the  great  measure  of  the  union  may  become  the  bright- 
est title  of  glory  of  the  son  of  Chatham  ! 

II.  THE  ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

The  allied  republics  struggled  against  the  administrative 
committees  of  the  directory,  and  the  agents  of  the  military 
administration  who  disputed  their  resources.  They  seconded 
powerfully  the  efforts  of  our  warriors.  A.  new  repubhc  arose 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  Neapolitan  throne :  it  took  the  name 
of  Parthenopian.  As  for  Piedmont,  the  provisionary  gov- 
ernment, instead  of  proclaiming  its  nominal  independence, 
demanded  of  its  own  accord  to  be  united  with  France.  They 
proclaimed  everywhere  that  the  demand  had  been  secretly 
ordered  by  our  generals;  but  that  order  was  not  necessary. 
Why  should  not  a  little  neighbouring  people  have  desired  to 
be  incorporated  with  the  great  republic?  Our  decrees  of 
union  were  not  incomplete  like  those  of  Ireland :  they  de- 
spoiled no  one,  and  they  rendered  the  people  equal,  in  every 
respect,  with  those  of  Paris.  It  was  by  such  a  decree  that 
Corsica  had  passed  from  the  state  of  a  conquered  island  to 
that  of  a  French  department ;  and  the  sincerity  of  that  incor- 
poration had  effaced  all  bitter  recollections  of  the  conquest. 
Turin  desired,  with  perfect  confidence,  a  union  which  un- 
fortunately destroyed  all  hope  of  Italian  independence ;  for 
what  is  Italy  without  the  Alps  1 

III.    THE    ARMIES. 

A  very  unfortunate  choice  had  signalized  this  month  as 
the  first  of  our  reverses.  The  minister  of  war,  Scherer,  was 
named  general-in-chief  of  the  army  of  Italy.     During  his 


88.  MEMOIRS    OF        * 

ministry,  Scherer  had  repressed  with  firmness  the  abuses 
of  the  administration  of  our  armies.  The  military  had  an 
antipathy  against  him.  The  directory,  seduced  by  his  fame, 
had  the  folly  to  prefer  him  to  Moreau,  whom  they  had  not 
pardoned  for  having  waited  for  the  arrestation  of  Pichegru 
before  he  denounced  his  correspondence  with  foreigners. 
Scherer,  notwithstanding  his  age,  departed  for  Milan. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

The  troubles  of  Belgium,  having  been  severely  repressed, 
allowed  us  to  declare  that  Brussels  was  no  longer  in  a  state 
of  siege.  On  the  21st  of  January,  we  again  gave  the  world 
the  sad  spectacle  of  a  great  civihzed  nation,  celebrating  the 
regicide  by  an  impious  festival.  The  preceding  year,  Napo- 
leon had  taken  advantage  of  the  pretext  of  his  not  being  in 
service,  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  that  anniversary ;  they 
could  not  persuade  him  to  appear,  except  confounded  amid 
the  other  members  of  the  iustitute.  That  year  several  mem- 
bers of  the  two  councils  did  not  appear  at  those  funeral  as- 
semblies. The  brothers  of  Napoleon  were  not  seen  among 
them. 

They  informed  us,  a  few  days  before  or  after,  that  they 
had  celebrated,  at  the  tower  of  London,  a  festival  equally 
moral.  We  were  told  that  upon  the  report  that  Napoleon 
had  been  assassiuated,  the  cannons  of  the  tower  had  pro- 
claimed the  hideous  approbation  of  the  English  minister. 
We  would  not  believe  it. 

The  most  brilliant  discussion  of  the  legislative  body  took 
place  upon  the  tax  on  salt ;  a  tax  that  had  been  several 
times  rejected,  and  that  the  directory  thought  proper  to 
propose  again  as  the  only  means  of  filling  up  the  deficiency 
of  the  last  year.  In  the  two  councils,  a  great  part  of  the 
sittings  were  sacrificed  to  that  question.  I  went  no  more 
to  the  directory;  but  I  was  invited,  with  a  great  deal  of  ear- 
nestness, to  go  there.  I  had  contributed  to  cause  the  refusal 
of  that  tax ;  and  I  was  known  to  be  a  decided  adversary 
against  taxes  upon  objects  of  the  first  necessity.  They 
endeavoured  to  obtain  my  consent  or  my  neutrality.  I  should 
have  yielded  if  I  had  been  convinced  of  the  deficit,  or  of  the 
impossibility  of  supplying  it  by  any  other  means ;  but  I  de- 
clared my  determination  to  combat  the  project  without  mer- 
cy. I  was  provoked  at  the  stubbornness  of  the  authors  of 
the  project,  and  I  inscribed  myself  among  the  opposing 
orators  ;  and  whether  it  was  with  our  colleagues  of  the  five 
hundred,  or  with  our  friends  in  the  council  of  ancients,  I 
neglected  nothing  to  render  useless  all  the  efforts  of  the 
government.  They  accused  me  of  violence,  and  that  impu- 
tation was  just ;  but  my  violence  held  to  a  profound  convic- 
tion that  I  still  completely  feel.    I  could  never  understand 


LtJCIEN    BONAPARTE.  89 

how  they  could  possibly  attempt  to  tax  those  objects  that 
are  indispensable  for  the  subsistence  of  the  poor ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  lights  of  our  economists,  my  mind  has  always 
remained  a  rebel  to  the  science  of  indirect  taxes  upon  things 
of  the  first  necessity.  Nothing  appeared  to  me  to  invalidate 
the  evidence  of  what  Rousseau  observes  in  a  letter  to  D'Al- 
embert :  "  The  taxes  upon  corn,  upon  salt,  beneath  an  ap- 
pearance of  justice,  contain  the  most  crying  injustice,  as  he 
who  has  little,  pays  a  great  deal,  and  he  who  has  a  great 
deal,  pays  but  little."  I  pronounced  the  following  discourse 
at  the  sitting  of  the  13th  Pluviose. 
"  Representatives  of  the  People  : 

"  We  are  discussing  the  means  to  complete  the  six  hun- 
dred millions  of  revenue  necessary  for  the  expenses  of  the 
year  7 ;  each  of  us  in  that  important  discussion  seeks  the 
truth  with  sincerity,  and  free  from  all  personal  consideration. 

"  To  complete  that  deficiency,  they  announce  to  us  projects 
of  economy  and  amelioration,  and  propose  to  us,  for  the 
fourth  time,  a  tax  upon  salt.  Discussing,  for  the  first  time, 
a  question  upon  the  finances,  my  inexperience  ought  to  in- 
timidate me ;  but  there  are  principles  engraven  upon  the 
heart,  which  it  suffices  to  follow  not  to  be  naisguided.  The 
observations  which  I  am  about  to  submit  to  you,  are  drawn 
from  the  source  of  those  principles,  which  all  the  doctrines 
and  all  the  committees  cannot  destroy. 

"  I  have  inquired,  in  the  first  place,  what  was  in  fact  the 
deficit  of  the  last  year.  I  then  examined  the  means  which 
they  offer  you  to  supply  it,  and  I  have  read  attentively,  and 
compared  with  your  political  system,  all  that  they  discussed 
and  printed  for  several  months  past  upon  the  utility. of  tax- 
ing objects  of  the  first  necessity. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  readiness  with  which  I  undertook 
that  examination,  the  sum  of  the  deficiency  appears  to  me 
to  be  very  uncertain  ;  and  the  principles  adopted  by  the  com- 
mission of  finances,  appear  to  me  to  be  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  constitution,  illegal,  and  against  the  rights  of  the  poorer 
classes ;  little  favourable  to  the  public  treasure  of  the  present 
year,  and  advantageous  only  to  speculators. 

*'  What  is  the  amount  of  the  deficiency  1  Several  con- 
tradictory opinions  have  been  presented.  Tired  of  that  con- 
tradiction, you  have  endeavoured  to  make  your  three  com- 
missions of  direct  and  indirect  taxes,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
finances,  united  in  one  alone  to  make  you  a  report.  In  the 
sitting  of  the  24th  Vendemiaire,  our  colleague,  Destrem,  in 
the  name  of  the  three  commissions,  formally  declared,  that 
in  procuring  to  the  treasury  the  re-entry  of  the  fifty -five 
millions,  you  would  complete  the  receipts,  and  would  assure 
you  the  payment  of  all  the  ordinary  and  extraordinary  expenses 
of  the  year  1.  To  effect  that  re-entry,  the  reporter  proposes 
to  you  the  tax  upon  the  gates,  windows,  and  chimneys,  and 

H3 


90  MEMOIRS    OP 

also  upon  the  horses,  carriages,  and  servants — this  your 
three  commissions  have  valued  altogether  at  forty-five  mil- 
lions !  There  remained  then  only  ten  millions :  while  await- 
ing at  least  that  sum  from  the  rectification  of  the  customs 
and  the  right  upon  the  fabrication  of  paper.  Thus,  we  have 
all  thought  to  arrive  at  the  end  of  that  painful  career.  I 
have  placed  before  you  the  proper  terms  of  your  three  com- 
missions. 

"  For  some  time  past  they  have  published,  upon  the  indi- 
rect taxes,  very  strange  ideas  ;  they  have  professed  the  doc- 
trine that  these  taxes  could  not  be  more  conveniently  placed 
than  upon  the  commodities  that  were  necessary  for  the 
general  consumption.  On  the  other  hand,  they  have  repulsed 
as  Vandal  and  revolutionary  the  project  of  taxing  the  en- 
joyments of  idleness  and  affluence  !  They  proposed  a  tax 
upon  corn,  and  they  proclaimed  the  inviolabihty  of  luxury  ! 
They  would  not  have  dared  to  propagate  these  ideas  without 
some  circumspection  under  any  monarchy,  in  the  time  even 
of  their  greatest  corruption,  that  have  been  propagated  be- 
neath a  republican  government,  the  natural  promoter  of  all 
opinions  favourable  to  the  welfare  of  the  greatest  number. 

"  '  The  tax  which  we  propose  to  you,'  continued  the  re- 
porter of  your  commissions,  "has  not,  like  the  tax  upon  salt, 
the  fault  of  being  impolitic,  iniquitous,  and  without  profit.  It 
will  not  strike  the  indigent  like  the  rich  ;  it  will  not  recall  a 
thousand  bitter  remembrances  to  a  thousand  presentiments 
that  are  not  all  without  reason  ;  it  will  not  make  the  fortune 
of  a  few  greedy  speculators,  who  often  convert  into  gold  the 
tears  of  the  indigent ;  it  will  not  occasion  either  revolt  or 
inquisition,  nor  new  estabUshments  of  a  ruinous  exchequer, 
and  of  a  bureaucratic  aristocracy  which  seems  to  threaten 
to  overwhelm  the  entire  republic  ! ! !' 

"  You  hear,  representatives  of  the  people  !  Your  com- 
mission of  the  finances,  and  those  of  the  direct  and  indirect 
contributiops,  in  proposing  to  you,  on  the  24th  of  Vende- 
miaire,  a  tax  to  fill  up  the  deficit,  announces  to  you,  that 
this  tax  has  not,. like  that  upon  the  salt,  the  fault  of  being  im- 
politic, inquisitorial,  and  without  profit.  ....  And  the  26th 
Nivose,  those  same  commissions,  notwithstanding  the  tax 
upon  the  windows  that  we  have  adopted,  brings  the  deficit 
to  the  same  sum  as  before  that  tax,  and  you  propose  to  fill 
it,  the  same  tax  which  they  condemned  !  . . .  .  I  pause  here. 
There  are  ideas  that,  to  be  seized,  need  only  to  be  an- 
nounced. 

"  The  26th  of  Nivose— you  have  heard  the  report  of  the 
Citizen  Males,  who  announced  to  you  again  the  deficiency  of 
fifty  miUions  !  Since  upon  the  24lh  of  Vendemiaire  it  was 
only  fifty-five  millions,  when  even  the  tax  upon  the  windows 
should  be  reckoned  at  sixteen  millions,  it  follows,  then,  at 
the  most  moderate  calculation,  that  the  deficiency  is  not  so 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  91 

great  as  the  reporter  tells  us.  To  justify  his  assertion,  he 
informs  us  that  several  of  the  taxes  that  were  decreed,  did 
not  render  the  sum  at  which  the  ministers  themselves  had 
valued  them.  I  cannot  suppose  that  the  deputies  of  the 
people,  in  the  matter  of  taxes,  would  diminish  the  valuation 
of  the  agents  of  the  executive  power. 

"  We  have  also  examined  if  the  demand  of  six  hundred 
millions  was  not  exaggerated  !  By  several  reports,  have  we 
not  heen  convinced  that  the  account  of  the  ministers  re- 
quired some  deductions  1  However,  if,  notwithstanding  that 
conviction,  we  had  accorded  the  entire  sum,  why  diminish 
each  day  the  supposed  produce  of  the  taxes  decreed,  and 
contradict,  by  vague  assertions,  those  solemn  and  public 
valuations  ?  I  place  before  you,  upon  this  subject,  a  passage 
of  the  report  of  the  Citizen  Destrem,  in  the  name  of  the 
same  commissions  of  which  the  Citizen  Males  is  to-day  the 
organ. 

"  '  As  it  is  essential  to  fix  the  council  upon  the  question 
of  the  expenses  for  the  year  7,  and  consequently  upon  the 
necessity  of  establishing  a  sum  of  taxes  of  which  the  re- 
ceipt will  cover  the  expenses,  and  that  it  is  useful,  I  may 
even  say  necessary,  that  the  French  people  know.,  that  if  we 
carry  the  receipts  to  a  very  high  sum,  it  is  because  the  ex- 
penses that  they  must  cover  are  just  and  indispensable.  It 
is  then  a  duty  of  your  commissions  to  say  to  that  tribune, 
that  incompleting  by  fifty-five  millions  of  new  taxes  the  six 
hundred  millions  decreed  for  the  ordinary  service  of  the  year 
7,  you  assure  that  service,  even  if  some  of  the  indirect 
taxes  do  not  render  the  entire  sum  at  which  the  produce  is 
valued,  whether  it  is  in  the  description  joined  to  the  mes- 
sage to  the  directory,  of  the  first  of  Messidor,  or  whether  it 
is  in  the  report  of  our  colleague  Villers,  of  the  22d  of  last 
Therm  idor. 

"  After  that  positive  declaration  of  your  commissions, 
after  the  comparison  of  the  two  reports  made  in  Vendemiaire 
and  Nivose,  it  appears  to  me  to  be  very  uncertain  that  the 
actual  deficit  can  be  fifty  millions. 

"  Let  us  now  examine  the  means  offered  by  the  Citizen 
Males.  He  announces  to  us  that  to  equalize  the  receipts  to 
the  expenses,  your  commissions  know  only  three  means: — 

"  1st.  Reduction  of  the  expenses  by  the  economies  and 
reforms  in  all  the  oflices  that  will  admit  of  it. 

"  2d.  Augmentation  in  the  collecting  of  the  duties  already 
established. 

"3d.  Creation  of  one  or  several  branches  of  revenue. 

"  He  has  presented  you  successively  a  sketch  of  the  re- 
forms and  the  ameliorations,  and  I  think  it  useless  to  follow 
him  in  all  his  calculations  ;  it  is  sufficient  to  recall  to  you 
what  he  says  in  page  16. 

" '  1  have  shown  that  we  might  hope  to  cover  the  ha      ,; 


92  .  MEMOIRS    OP 

the  deficit  by  economy  and  ameliorations  in  the  collecting  of 
duties  already  established  ;  and  I  have  added  that  it  was  in- 
dispensable to  seek  the  surplus  in  the  establishment  of  some 
new  branches  of  the  revenue.' 

"  Thus,  representatives  of  the  people,  your  commissions 
assure  you  that  the  economies  and  the  ameliorations  will 
produce  you  a  sum  of  twenty-five  millions.  I  believe  that 
these  reforms  will  go  much  further :  it  is  sufficient  to  cast  the 
eye  upon  the  state  of  the  expenses  of  the  war  and  the  marine. 
We  have  made  funds  for  the  armies  of  the  land  and  sea  far 
above  the  effective  number  of  men.  By  calculating  that  over- 
plus, we  find  that  the  economies  must  exceed  twenty-five 
millions ;  and  perhaps  a  new  tax  will  not  be  necessary.  If 
there  remained,  however,  a  little  deficiency,  I  should  vote 
for  supplying  it  by  a  tax  upon  certain  objects  of  luxury  ;  but 
as  long  as  that  deficiency  shall  not  be  demonstrated  to  me 
more  clearly,  I  shall  not  consent  to  fresh  taxes.  I  cannot 
see  how  a  vague  and  contradictory  word  is  sufficient  for  the 
decree  of  twenty  millions  of  taxes. 

"  Why  has  not  the  commission  made  haste  to  offer  us  the 
detailed  account  of  the  reforms  to  effectuate  and  of  the  ame- 
liorations to  be  obtained  1  Instead  of  confining  itself  to  letting 
us  have  but  a  glimpse  of  that  inviting  perspective — why  did 
it  previously  propose  the  tax  upon  salt  ]  It  is  because  you 
have  already  rejected  it  several  times,  that  this  tax  obtains 
the  priority.  And  if  it  is  true  that  a  legislator  must  tremble 
in  proposing  a  new  tax;  if  he  rejoices  at  the  idea  of  a  useful 
reform,  why,  since  they  talk  to  us  about  salt,  have  they  not 
employed  the  time  in  fixing  in  a  precise  manner  the  state  of 
those  economies  that  they  have  only  announced  to  us  1 

"  It  is  again  the  reporter  who  furnishes  us  with  the  answer 
to  that  question,  in  expressing,  in  page  16,  in  terms  which  I 
have  read  several  times,  always  with  increased  surprise,  and 
which  I  beg  the  chamber  to  weigh  well  with  reflection. 

'■' '  Your  commissions,'  said  the  reporter,  'have  regarded 
the  establishment,  as  a  new  branch  of  revenue,  (that  is  to  say 
the  tax  upon  salt,)  as  so  extremely  necessary,  that  they  have 
charged  me  to  declare,  that  without  that  tax  you  have  not  to 
hope  for  either  economy  or  amelioration,  or  for  the  return 
of  any  credit !  ! !' 

"And  what  connection,  may  I  ask  our  colleague,  what  con- 
nection does  there  exist  between  the  tax  upon  salt,  and  the 
ameliorations  and  reforms  that  are  to  be  operated  in  the  other 
parts  of  the  service]  How  then! — that  tax  acknowledged 
by  those  same  commissioners,  the  Hith  of  Vendemiaire,  as  impol- 
itic, inquisitorial,  and  of  no  profit,  becomes  2l\\  at  once  so  neces- 
sary, that  we  are  solemnly  informed  that  if  we  again  refuse 
them,  we  must  renounce  the  twenty-five  millions  of  econo- 
mies and  reforms,  that  they  thus  make  to  depend  entirely 
upon  an  odious  tax,  discredited  yesterday  at  this  tribune,  but 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  93 

without  which  there  is  no  safety  for  the  people  at  this  mo- 
merit ! 

"  So  manifest  a  contradiction,  so  strange  a  connection, 
between  the  amelioration  so  long  retarded  and  a  tax  which 
they  never  cease  to  reproduce,  proves  to  every  honest  man, 
that  the  exaggerated  calculations  of  the  reporter,  and  the 
fearful  images  which  he  has  described  to  us,  have  no  other 
end  than  to  wrest  from  us  the  tax  upon  salt.  What  confi- 
dence can  all  that  phantasmagoria  inspire  in  usl 

"  As  for  me,  I  declare,  that  it  is  demonstrated  to  me  clearly, 
that  the  deficit  cannot  arrive  at  fifty  millions ;  and  that  the 
reforms  will  in  a  great  measure  cover  it.  I  think  it  reason- 
able, just,  and  politic,  to  know  precisely  the  amount  of  those 
reforms  iDefore  we  accord  another  tax ;  and  then,  if  there 
still  remain  some  millions  to  be  found,  we  will  discuss  the 
choice  of  a  new  tax.  The  nation  then,  instead  of  seeing  in 
us  only  the  distributors  of  its  revenues,  will  see  also  the 
economists ;  then  there  will  no  longer  remain  any  suspi- 
cions with. those  who  think  that  all  the  reforms  pompously 
announced  are  only  a  deceitful  illusion  offered  at  a  distance 
to  mislead  us. 

"  It  is  here  the  case  to  explain  more  in  detail  that  doctrine 
which  has  been  propagated,  for  some  months  past,  with  so 
much  profusion,  a  doctrine  that  I  have  already  remarked  as 
too  favourable  to  luxury,  and  tending,  as  a  last  consequence, 
to  tax  the  bread  that  the  great  majority  of  the  French 
people  procure  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow;  that  doctrine 
which  they  endeavour  by  all  means  to  introduce  among  us, 
is  the  true  cause  of  the  obstinacy  which  they  evince  against 
the  tax  upon  salt.  That  tax  will  not  produce  scarcely  any- 
thing this  present  year,  but  our  law  would  be  the  prelude  to 
the  admission  of  the  financial  system  of  England,  which 
monarchical  governments,  charged  with  an  immense  debt, 
may  covet,  but  which  republican  legislators  must  repulse. 
They  want  to  arrive  at  drawing,  from  what  they  call  the 
multitude,  enormous  sums  which  render,  without  doubt,  gen- 
erally speaking,  the  tax  upon  the  commodities  of  the  first 
necessity.  But  because  that  doctrine  remained  for  a  mo- 
ment without  reply,  do  they  believe  it  cannot  be  attacked  1 
Is  it  sufficient  that  a  tax  will  produce  a  great  deal  that  they 
should  adopt  it  I  Do  they  think  to  dazzle  us  by  a  pompous 
comparison  of  the  state  of  England  with  ours  1  The  pros- 
perity of  England  ! ! !  Where,  then,  do  they  see  it  with  so 
much  certainty  1  Have  they  thoroughly  calculated  the  ex- 
tent of  her  debt  and  the  influence  of  the  taxes  upon  the  popula- 
tion 1  Have  they  examined  if  it  is  not  upon  that  basis  that 
reposes  the  omnipotence  of  a  minister  king]  Have  they 
forgotten  that  Fox  and  Sheridan  are  reduced  to  appear  no 
longer  in  the  British  senate ;  or  that  it  is  vain  they  cause 
their  immortal  voices  to  be  heard  ?    No,  no,  representatives 


94  MEMOIRS    OP 

of  the  people,  let  us  not  quit  the  rigid  principles  of  popular 
wisdom  for  the  financial  system  of  our  enemies.  There, 
where  the  legislators  have  the  imprudence  to  open  the  veins 
of  the  state,  the  exhaustion,  a  mortal  exhaustion,  is  inevita- 
ble. In  talking  to  u-s  of  the  prosperity  of  England,  have  they 
made  all  these  reflections'?  As  for  the  public  credit,  does  it 
not  repose  in  safety  under  a  good  administration,  under  re- 
forms that  have  been  accomplished,  and  not  promised  only  ? 
Would  they  make  us  believe,  also,  that  the  public  credit  de- 
pends upon  the  tax  on  salt"!  Yes,  without  doubt,  it  is  what 
the  Citizens  Males  and  Jacqueminot  want  to  make  us  be- 
lieve. I  will  reply  to  them  by  a  single  observation  which 
will  destroy  all  their  reasoning :  We  have  made  funds  for 
six  hundred  thousand  men  and  eighty  ships  of  war.  Our  army 
and  our  marine  remain  under  that  number.  .  .  There  cannot 
then  exist,  at  this  moment,  a  deficiency  so  pressing  to  force 
the  contractors  to  double  the  price  of  their  bargain.  We 
are  assured,  however,  tliat  the  distrust  of  those  contractors 
really  exists.  Well,  if  that  is  really  the  case,  we  must  at- 
tribute it  to  other  causes.  ...  It  is  the  enormous  sacrifices 
that  are  exacted  by  the  subaltern  agents  which  cause  the 
dearness  of  the  markets.  It  is  there,  and  not  in  the  doctrine 
of  Smith,  that  you  should  see  the  source  of  the  discredit  and 
the  mistrust ;  and  if  the  directory  knows  how  to  punish 
those  who  abuse  its  confidence,  the  dearness  of  the  prices 
will  cease,  and  the  effects  will  disappear  with  the  cause. 

"  To  justify  the  taxes  upon  the  objects  of  the  first  neces- 
sity, they  talk  of  the  superiority  and  the  facility  of  their 
collection.  So  be  it.  But  all  that  is  useful  is  not  always 
conformable  to  our  duties.  We  will  not  renounce  this  sa- 
cred principle,  that  in  a  free  country,  they  may  tax  property y 
but  not  the  person.  To  conquer  our  repugnance,  they  en- 
deavour to  show  us  that,  by  the  augmentation  relative  to  the 
price  of  days  of  the  workman,  it  is  always  in  the  definitive, 
it  is  the  rich  who  acquit  the  tax.  Strange  reasoning  !  If 
the  price  of  the  days  of  the  workmen  increases,  their  num- 
ber will  diminish;  and  work  and  money  being  synonymous 
for  the  poor,  he  would  lose  on  one  side  what  he  would  gain 
by  that  increase  of  salary ;  if  it  was  real,  would  it  not  be  al- 
ways in  proportion  with  the  increase  of  the  price  of  provis- 
ions'? Would  that  indemnify,  with  exactitude,  him  who, 
every  evening,  finds  beneath  his  thatch  a  family  who  look  up 
to  him  for  bread  ■?  To  understand  that  theory  of  which  they 
appear  to  be  so  proud,  every  workman  ought  to  put  the  same 
price  upon  his  work  ;  but  for  that,  ought  not  all  the  work- 
men to  have  the  same  number  of  mouths  to  feed  1  The  sin- 
gle man,  then,  having  less  necessities  than  the  father  of  a 
family,  will  he  not  sell  his  work  dearer  ?  As  he  is  generally 
younger  and  stronger,  the  single  man  would  be  preferred ; 
and  the  father  of  a  family  would  be  but  too  happy  to  imitate, 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  95 

for  the  price  of  his  day's  work,  him  who  is  more  vigorous 
and  who  has  less  wants.  ...  If  he  found  work  at  the  same 
price  as  the  single  man,  his  work  would  be  insufficient  to 
satisfy  his  family  with  that  commodity  that  you  had  taxed 
vvithout  remorse.  Is  every  workman  also  certain  of  finding 
work  every  day  ]  And  if  he  cannot  find  any,  or  if  he  is  ill, 
what  becomes  of  your  proportions  between  the  price  of 
provisions  and  the  price  of  his  day's  work  1  You  may  find 
that  chimerical  proportion  in  Smith's  book,  for  what  mny  not 
be  found  in  books  1  but  you  will  not  find  it  upon  the  pallet 
of  the  poor  man  dying  with  hunger !  The  unfortunate,  the 
women,  the  old  men  who  can  no  longer  work,  the  little  for- 
tunes, the  small  pensioners,  the  parents  of  warriors,  where 
will  they  find  a  compensation  for  the  dearness  with  which 
your  law  would  strike  their  bread  or  their  salt  T 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,  those  classes  that  are 
poor  and  respectable  should  draw  our  attention,  more  than 
those  classes  who  know  only  luxury,  and  know  not  what  it 
is  to  want.  No  ;  while  the  brothers  and  the  sons  of  the 
citizens  shed  their  blood  in  the  service  of  the  republic,  you 
will  not  permit  that  such  a  system  of  taxes  should  arrive  to 
render  the  existence  of  their  families  more  diflScult,  already 
sufficiently  painful. 

"  Do  not  forget  that  the  welfare  of  the  people  depends 
upon  the  lowness  of  the  price  of  provisions  necessary  for 
their  existence ;  that  every  day's  comfort,  which  consoles 
and  sustains  the  poor,  and  which  alone  can  soften  the  bitter- 
ness of  that  inequality  of  fortune  inherent  to  our  poor  nature. 
If  by  our  laws  we  diminish  and  destroy  the  only  wealth  of  the 
greatest  number,  we  betray  our  first  duty. 
"  "  I  trust  you  will  not  approve  of  that  impious  doctrine. 
With  our  eyes  turned  towards  our  constituents,  let  us  not  be 
carried  away  by  weakness  to  the  evil  that  we  have  already 
repulsed  so  many  times.  No  ;  notwithstanding  the  wonder- 
ful art  of  opposing  to  your  good  intentions,  address,  and  ob- 
stinacy, notwithstanding  the  attacks  that  are  renewed  with- 
out ceasing,  ive  will  not  tax  the  provisions  that  are  of  the  first 
necessity.  I  can  vouch  for  your  paternal  sohcitude,  and  all 
those  generous  sentiments  which  animate  you,  the  monopo- 
lizers will  be  baffled  a  fourth  time,  and  they  will  learn  that 
in  a  republic  they  are  sometimes  deceived  in  prophesying 
the  acts  of  the  legislative  body. 

"  I  suppose  that  the  defenders  of  the  project  of  the  coni- 
mission  have  employed  every  possible  reasoning  to  cause  it 
to  be  adopted :  but  "^I  never  could  have  supposed  that  they 
could  have  seen  in  that  tax  upon  salt  the  true  popularity.  .  .  . 
Party  spirit,  the  envy  of  domineering  without  any  obstacle, 
might  change  enough  in  some  heads  the  natural  signification 
of  the  words ;  so  that  they  call  anarchy  fidelity  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  mandate,  and  accuse  even  silence  of  conspiracy. 


83  MEMOIRS   OP 

But  do  they  hope  to  make  the  nation  partakers  of  the  same 
delirium,  who  listens  and  judges  as  a  sovereign  the  words 
and  acts  of  its  deputies  ?  Do  they  hope  to  persuade  it,  that 
it  is  for  the  love  of  the  people  that  they  have  employed,  for 
so  long  a  time,  in  favour  of  the  tax  upon  salt,  the  placards, 
the  libels,  and  the  injuries  with  which  the  ministerial  journals 
are  filled,  and  which  all  the  other  instruments  of  the  press 
copy  with  a  servility  that  is  but  little  honourable  to  them? 
Will  the  people  believe  that  their  welfare  will  be  increased 
at  the  same  time  as  the  fortune  of  the  monopolizers  1  It 
would  be  in  vain  to  reckon  upon  so  much  good  nature. 

*'  The  true  popularity  of  a  legislator  is  that  which  he  ob- 
tains in  watching  and  defending  the  interests  of  the  public, 
with  as  much  zeal  as  if  it  was  his  own  personal  interest. 
Or,  let  me  ask,  who  is  he,  who,  after  having  approved  with 
his  eyes  shut  the  accounts  of  his  house,  would  continue, 
without  ceasing,  to  grant  fresh  funds,  before  he  had  assured 
himself  that  those  which  he  had  already  given  were  ex- 
pended 1  Such  a  senseless  conduct  is  exactly  what  they 
propose  to  us;  and  the  defenders  of  the  tax  upon  salt  have 
in  vain  ei-deavoured  to  weaken  the  contradiction  of  their 
principles  with  the  republican  principles  which  direct  us: 
they  cannot  efface  from  their  project  the  seal  of  national 
reprobation. 

"  I  leave  aside  the  details  of  the  project.  For  myself,  I 
will  only  consider  the  principle  under  which  that  tax  re- 
poses. It  is  in  hatred  of  this  principle  that  your  conviction 
has  been  already  expressed  by  a  reiterated  refusal :  the  con- 
viction of  the  legislator  does  not  change  in  a  few  days,  ex- 
cept he  finds  himself  justly  exposed  to  decline  in  public 
opinion. 

"  I  shall  conclude  by  only  recalling  to  you,  as  several 
orators  have  done  who  have  preceded  me,  that  this  tax 
would  be  of  use  alone  during  this  present  year  to  those  who 
have  stored  their  warehouses  with  salt,  which  your  three 
decisions  against  the  tax  could  not  prevent.  The  law  upon 
salt  in  the  warehouses  will  open  a  new  source  for  the  dilapi- 
dations of  a  thousand  agents.  It  will  produce  but  a  feeble 
increase  to  the  treasury,  even  from  the  declaration  of  your 
own  commissioners.  The  people  support  all  the  weight ; 
the  speculators  alone  will  receive  the  benefit ;  and  the  next 
day  they  would  come  again  to  ask  you,  with  the  same  cal- 
culations and  the  same  reasonings,  a  new  indirect  contribu- 
tion which  would  probably  enrich  again  fresh  speculators, 
equally  as  provident  as  those  of  to-day.  .  .  .  Thus  the 
tax  upon  tobacco,  valued  at  ten  millions  in  the  project,  is  re- 
duced to  four  millions  after  the  law.  .  .  .  Thus  we  no 
longer  hear  valued  at  sixteen  millions  the  tax  upon  gates 
and  windows  At  the  aspect  of  such  reductions,  might  we 
not  compare  our  budget  of  the  year  7  to  the  infernal  cask  of 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  97 

the  Danaides  1  And  certainly  we  will  not  be  condemned  to 
fill  it  without  ceasing  with  the  tears  of  those  who  have  con- 
fided to  us  their  defence. 

"  I  resume  : — and  I  demand  the  order  of  the  day  upon  the 
tax  on  salt ;  and  that  they  declare  to  me  in  principle,  that 
there  shall  not  be  any  tax  made  upon  the  commodities  of 
the  first  necessity. 

"  I  demand,  also,  tjiat  previous  to  any  proposition  for  a  new 
tax,  the  commissions  united,  present  us  a  precise  report 
upon  the  economies,  the  reforms,  and  the  meliorations,  in 
the  collections  already  established.  After  this  report,  we 
shall  know  if  there  exists  a  deficit  ;  and  in  that  case,  it  is 
our  duty  to  surround  the  directory  with  all  her  constitution- 
al strength,  I  demand  that  your  commissioners  present  di- 
rectly the  projects  of  the  taxes,  provided  they  do  not  weigh 
upon  the  commodities  of  the  first  necessity. 

*'  I  insist,  above  all,  that  the  principle  be  put  to  the  vote." 


This  discourse  excited  a  great  deal  of  agitation  in  the 
council.  The  public  galleries  applauded,  notwithstanding 
the  rules,  and  were  called  to  order.  They  ordered  an  im- 
pression of  the  discourse.  The  reporter  Males  felt  very 
sensibly  so  direct  an  attack. 

"  I  will  undertake  beforehand,"  he  cried,  "  the  engage- 
ment to  pulverize  ....  to  prove  that  Lucien  Bonaparte, 
against  his  intentions,  without  doubt,  has  committed  capital 
errors.     I  demand  for  the  discussion  to  continue." 

The  discussion  was  adjourned  to  the  next  day.  We  did 
not  doubt  the  result.  The  directorials,  exasperated,  were 
disconcerted  ;  the  opposition  from  that  day  took  a  character 
of  violence  that  it  had  not  before. 

The  next  day  the  Deputy  Creuze  Latouche,  in  a  very  elo- 
quent discourse,  defended  the  tax  and  the  commissions  of 
the  finances.  He  raised  the  hopes  of  the  partisans  of  the 
tax,  as  he  talked  on  my  pretended  errors  in  calculation.  I 
had  printed  the  same  day  in  the  Moniteur  the  following 
note  : 

"  The  Citizen  Creuze  Latouche  has  affirmed  in  his  dis- 
course of  the  14th,  that  1  had  committed  an  error  in  calcu- 
lation ;  I  think  it  right  to  deny  that  assertion,  as  it  is  abso- 
lutely false. 

"  I  said  that  the  deficit  did  not  appear  to  me  to  be  fifty  mil- 
lions, because  upon  the  24th  of  Vendemiaire,  the  Citizen  Des- 
trem,  in  the  name  of  the  commission  having  brought  the  defi- 
cit to  fifty-five  millions,  and  the  tax  upon  the  windows  being 
valued  at  sixteen  millions,  by  the  Citizen  Males  himself,  it 
evidently  results  that  the  deficit  cannot  be  fifty-five,  but  le&s 
by  sixteen,  that  is  to  say  thirty-nine  millions: — except  the 

1 


98  MEMOIRS    OF 

commissioner  formally  disavows  his  report  of  the  24th  Ven- 
deraiaire,  a  disavowal  which,  not  having  been  made,  cannot 
serve  to  form  the  opinions  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people. 

"  This,  then,  is  what  I  said,  and  from  whence  I  conclude 
that  the  deficit  was  not  so  great  as  the  reporter  told  us ;  but 
neither  he,  nor  any  other  person,  has  replied  to  the  in- 
quiry. 

"  I  never  pretended  that  the  taxes  proposed  by  the  Citizen 
Destreni  would  have  supplied  the  deficit,  because  I  knew 
very  well  that  sum  had  been  rejected,  and  the  others  reduced. 
I  have  then  only  calculated  the  taxes  of  the  Citizen  DesLrem 
for  sixteen  millions.  I  have  heard  that  that  sum  was  to  di- 
minish so  much  of  the  deficit,  and  not  that  it  was  to  supply 
it.  The  supposition  of  the  Citizen  Creuze  Latouche  is  then 
gratuitous,  and  the  error  is  in  consequence  upon  his  side, 
as  he  has  taken  wrong  my  opinion  upon  the  actual  deficit !" 

This  note  remained  without  an  answer :  it  was  impossible 
to  refute  it. 

But  the  directory  thought  itself  sufficiently  strong  not  to 
draw  back.  The  last  victories  in  Piedmont  and  Naples  had 
increased  their  audacity ;  they  addressed  to  us,  during  the 
sitting,  a  message  where  they  rendered  us  responsible  for 
our  delay  in  completing  the  receipts  :  that  document  finished 
thus :  "  The  government  absolves  itself  in  the  eyes  of  the 
republic  from  all  responsibility  for  the  disastrous  conse- 
quences that  an  interruption  of  the  most  sacred  and  urgent 
circumstances  will  cause." 

This  message,  of  which  the  reading  followed  the  discourse 
of  Creuse  Latouche,  irritated  us — as  it  was  evidently  made 
to  force  us  to  their  will.  It  was  not,  however,  without  ef- 
fect upon  impartial  and  undecided  minds.  The  partisans  of 
the  government  endeavoured  to  profit  by  that  circumstance 
to  close  the  discussion.  Girod  Pouzol,  who  was  much  es- 
teemed in  the  council,  insisted  upon  their  voting  instantly : 
*'  It  is  precisely,"  said  he,  "  because  they  heard  yesterday  a 
very  luminous  and  eloquent  opinion  against  the  project — and 
to-day,  for  the  project,  an  opinion  equally  eloquent  and 
luminous,  that  I  demand  the  close  of  the  discussion.  I  do 
not  believe  there  is  anything  new  to  be  heard  upon  that 
subject." 

1  was,  for  my  part,  disposed  to  put  it  to  the  vote.  Not 
having  as  yet  experience  in  the  assemblies,  I  did  not  imagine 
that  the  art  of  profiting  by  an  incident  often  decides  the  vic- 
tory. One  of  my  colleagues,  better  informed  than  I  was, 
warned  me  that  if  they  voted  at  that  moment,  the  rax  would 
pass.  1  profited  by  his  advice ;  and  notwithstanding  the 
comphraent  that  Girod  Pouzol  had  addressed  to  me,  I  fol- 
lowed him  to  the  tribune,  where  I  combated  him  as  fol- 
lows : — 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  99 

**  I  do  not  see  why  the  discourses  that  have  hitherto  been 
pronounced  appear  sufficient,  and  why  all  the  orators  that 
are  registered  are  not  to  be  heard.  Certainly  they  have  not 
said  all  that  might  have  been  said,  which  is  proved  by  their 
refusing  to  hear  what  there  remains  to  say.  Whatever  argu- 
ments or  imputations  they  may  make  upon  the  subject ; 
whatever  accusations  of  conspiration  they  may  form,  and 
from  whatever  authority  those  perfidious  suggestions  may 
proceed,  I  shall  remain  as  insensible  to  personalities  as  the 
marble  of  this  tribune.  I  shall  listen  only  to  the  voice  of  my 
conscience  ;  and  I  shall  do  only  that  which  I  think  conform 
able  to  the  interests  of  the  people. 

'*  Who  shall  dare  to  say  that  there  has  existed  here  an 
opposition  tending  to  deprive  the  government  of  the  means 
which  are  necessary  for  it  1  Was  it  not  with  general  con- 
sent that  the  200,000  conscripts  were  called  to  arms,  and 
that  the  125  millions  destined  for  their  maintenance  was 
voted.  They  announce  to  us  to-day  a  deficit — they  demand 
fresh  resources.  Ought  we  not  to  discuss  the  necessity,  the 
results,  the  advantages,  and  the  inconveniences  ]  Must  our 
determination  be  carried  away  by  an  incident,  by  an  influ- 
ence out  of  the  council  1  We  should  prove,  on  the  contrary, 
to  our  constituents,  that  we  have  decided  only  after  having 
maturely  weighed  their  interests.  There  is  never  a  respon- 
sibility for  the  representatives  of  the  people  to  discuss  in 
liberty.     I  demand  that  the  discussion  may  continue." 

The  discussion  continued.  The  effects  of  the  directorial 
message,  skilfully  arranged,  were  neutralized  in  that  sitting ; 
but  they  had  alarmed  the  timid.  Two  days  were  again  em- 
ployed to  combat  and  defend  the  unfortunate  tax,  that  the 
government  desired  to  have  at  any  price.  It  was  in  vain 
that  they  were  offered  several  taxes  equivalent,  and  that 
were  easier  to  collect.  .  .  .  They  repulsed  all  that  was 
o-ffered.  After  a  very  stormy  sitting,  the  government  gained 
by  forty-six  voices.  After  the  adoption  of  the  principle 
which  was  so  odious  to  us,  we  desired  at  least  to  diminish 
the  evil — the  tax  was  fixed  at  a  halfpenny  in  the  pound.  I 
desired  that  it  should  not  be  increased,  and  although  discour- 
aged, I  again  spoke  upon  the  reduction  of  the  first  article, 
and  proposed  the  following  amendment : — 

"  1  propose  to  declare  that  the  tax  of  a  halfpenny  per 
pound  upon  salt  can  never  be  increased.  The  majority  pro- 
nounced yesterday.  It  does  not  follow  that  we  should  again 
renew  the  combat :  but  it  is  necessary  to  shut  the  mouths 
of  the  malevolent,  and  not  to  leave  them  the  pretext  of  ac- 
cusing your  intentions.  I  do  not  see  why  you  repulse  my 
amendment.  Will  they,  in  opposition  to  this,  pretend  that, 
as  the  legislative  body  votes  every  year  the  contributions, 
what  I  propose  is  useless  and  unconstitutionaH  But  the 
project  of  law  says,  lower  down,  that  the  right  cannot  be 


100  MEMOIRS    OF 

confirmed!  .  .  .  If  you  thus  anticipate  the  decision  of  your 
successors,  you  might  as  well  decree  that  the  tax  should  not 
be  augmented.  In  making  this  proposition,  I  consider  my- 
self the  organ  of  several  of  our  colleagues  whose  opinions 
were  quite  contrary  to  the  tax,  and  who  have  finished  by 
consenting  only  in  consequence  of  the  lowness  of  the  price 
of  the  tax.  This  declaration,  which  I  beg  of  yon  not  to  re- 
fuse to  make,  will  have  the  good  effect  of  tranquiiiizing  the 
contributaries :  it  will  impose  silence  upon  the  malevolent, 
who  are  ever  ready  to  seize  upon  occasions  to  do  mischief, 
and  to  impoison  our  intentions,  and  to  throw  a  discredit 
upon  our  decrees.  They  will  not  fail  to  say,  that  you  are 
contented  to-day  with  a  halfpenny,  but  that  to-morrow  you  will 
exact  two  or  three,  &c.  1  insist  upon  the  declaration  which 
I  propose  as  an  amendment  to  your  first  article,"  My  pro- 
positron  was  repulsed ;  the  majority  would  not  embeMish 
their  victory  by  moderation.  Sad  victory,  which  served 
only  to  make  enemies  for  the  directory ;  for  the  council  of 
ancients  rejected  the  tax  after  a  debate  that  was  equally  as 
sharp  and  as  prolonged  as  ours,  in  which  Cornet,  Lemercier, 
and  Boudin,  decided  the  votes  in  our  favour.  The  project 
of  law  was  sent  back  to  us.  The  directory  resigned  itself 
by  force,  and  our  commissions  of  the  finances  occupied 
themselves  with  new  endeavours  necessary  to  make  up  the 
deficit. 

I  have,  perhaps,  detained  my  readers  too  long  upon  that 
question  ;  but  it  appears  to  me  that  it  is  not  without  interest 
at  the  moment  in  which  1  write.  Many  of  the  departments 
of  France  complain,  at  this  very  time,  against  the  tax  upon 
salt ;  for  that  tax,  so  often  repulsed  by  us  under  the  republic, 
was  adopted  under  the  imperial  monarchy,  which  does  not 
make  any  sort  of  change  in  my  conviction.  It  was  a  sad 
deviation  from  the  popular  spirit  which  animated  the  empe- 
ror when  that  tax  was  re-established  afterward.  For  these 
thirty  years  past  our  financial  system  has  made  no  sort  of 
liberal  progress,  since  the  person  of  the  man  who  has  only 
his  hands  for  his  fortune,  is  struck  by  our  taxes ;  as  if  that 
personal  charge  did  not  sufficiently  oppress  him,  other  taxes 
raise  the  price  of  commodities  of  the  first  necessity.  These 
are  the  abuses  which  are  really  counter  revolutionary,  and 
evidently  in  opposition  to  the  principles  of  1789,  which  the 
French  press  should  combat  without  ceasing.  It  is  in  suc- 
couring the  most  numerous  classes,  and  not  in  doubtful  the- 
ories, that  the  social  progress  consists. 

Besides,  this  grand  struggle  was  sustained  on  each  side, 
in  the  two  councils,  with  an  impetuosity  which  was  very  fatal 
to  the  directory.  It  was  th«n  that  the  conviction  was  estab- 
lished, in  many  people's  minds,  that  such  pilots  were  very 
likely  to  shipwreck  us.  The  conduct  of  the  council  of  an- 
cients was  highly  politic.     It  is  by  sustaining  the  material 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  101 

interests  of  the  people  that  a  legislative  assembly  becomes 
powerful:  whether  that  chamber  is  composed  of  young  or 
old,  let  it  be  elective  for  life,  or  hereditary,  there  is  no  real, 
strength  for  it,  but  in  its  popularity.  Wo  to  tliose  who,  for- 
getting that,  repose  their  whole  strength  of  right  upon  the 
sword.  In  a  free  state,  a  representative  chamber  is  nothing 
when  it  has  lost  public  opinion ;  and  the  sword  will  not  sus- 
tain a  longtime  that  authority  which  opinion  has  condemned. 


Month  of  Ventose.     Germinal  and  Floreal,  year  7.      From  the 
20th  of  February  to  the  2isl  May,  1799. 

New  Elections  contrary  to  the  Directory — Assassination  of  our  Pleni- 
DOtentiaries  at  Rastadt — Sieyes  named  Director. 

I.    THE    POWERS. 

The  spirit  of  peace  and  reconciliation  in  the  American  na- 
tion, triumphed  over  a  vanity  skilfully  envenomed  by  diplo- 
macy. The  president  named  three  negotiators,  of  whom  the 
congress  and  the  people  beheld  the  choice  with  equal  satis- 
faction. That  measure  retarded  the  probability  of  a  fratri- 
cide war  between  the  two  grand  republics  of  the  new  and 
ancient  world. 

Russia  and  the  Porte  signed  their  treaty  of  alliance  at  Jas- 
sy.  Our  heroic  expedition  to  Egypt,  formed  against  the  Rus- 
sian and  English  influence,  had  for  its  first  results,  the  con- 
trary of  that  which  they  desired  to  obtain,  natural  effect  of 
a  vast  plan  of  which  they  neglected  one  of  the  principal 
parts.  The  directory  was  culpable  in  forgetting  the  mission 
of  the  Citizen  Talleyrand  at  Constantinople.  That  individual 
egotism  could  have  deterred  a  public  man  from  a  journey 
which  might  have  terminated  in  the  Seven  Towers,  was  per- 
fectly natural ;  but  a  government  which  holds  the  reins  with 
so  feeble  a  hand,  is  a  thousand  times  more  culpable  than  its 
agents.  The  Russians  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  islands  of 
Greece.  After  a  resistance  of  several  months,  Corfu  yielded 
at  length  to  the  fleets  of  the  czar.  The  gold  which  Pitt 
accorded  to  Austria,  was  in  the  end  to  be  repaid  by  streams 
of  blood  of  the  Continent.  The  Archduke  Charles  had 
passed  the  river  Jun,  and  directed  his  columns  towards  Ulm. 
The  General  Jourdan  had  passed  the  Rhine.  The  Count 
Metternich,  ambassador  of  Austria  at  Rastadt,  ceased  to 
dissimulate,  and  satisfied  with  having  prevented  our  peace 
with  Europe,  he  quitted  the  congress.  Our  army  of  the 
Danube,  which  was  at  first  victorious,  was  surrounded  by 
forces  so  much  superior,  that  it  was  obliged  to  repass  the 
Rhine.     A  long  train  of  reverses  began  for  us,      Suwarrow, 

I  3 


102  MEMOIRS   OF 

at  the  he^d  of  a  Russian  and  Austrian  army,  invaded  Italy, 
and  passed  the  Adige  at  Eridan. 

II.    THE    ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

Switzerland,  valiantly  defended  by  Massena,  was  the 
only  one  of  the  alUed  republics  that  seconded  us  power- 
fully. She  reaped  the  fruits  of  our  success.  The  Grisons, 
delivered  from  the  Austrian  troops,  expressed  loudly  their 
desire  to  be  united  with  Helvetia ;  and  that  union,  not  nom- 
inal only,  was  real  and  absolute,  and  consolidated  by  the 
Helvetian  confederation. 

Less  fortunate,  the  Italian  republics  struggled  at  the  same 
time  against  their  interior  troubles,  and  the  victories  of 
Suwarrow.  In  the  Cisalpine,  the  enemies  of  the  direc- 
torial innovations  had  powerfully  favoured  the  success  of  the 
coalition.  At  home,  the  misfortunes  of  Pius  VI.,  torn  from 
his  throne  and  dragged  to  Florence,  to  Turin,  to  Parma,  and 
at  last  to  Brian9on,  kindled  implacable  hatreds.  At  Naples, 
the  emissaries  of  Sicily,  protected  by  the  Enghsh  fleets,  had 
raised  the  Calabrians.  Everything  at  once  conspired  against 
us.    The  Cisalpine  directory  evacuated  Milan  with  our  army. 

III.    THE    ARMIES. 

Upon  the  renewal  of  hostilities,  we  had  invaded  Tuscany ; 
but  it  was  not  sufficient  for  our  armies  to  have  to  defend 
themselves  aerainst  enemies  that  were  more  numerous,  and 
against  the  factions  that  divided  our  allies.  It  was  necessary, 
also,  at  the  same  time,  to  struggle  against  the  agents  of  our 
own  ministry.  Previous  to  his  commanding  in  Italy,  the 
minister  of  war,  Scherer,  misled  by  an  unseasonable  rigour, 
or  carried  away  by  the  dilapidators  of  our  financ  n,  had  let 
loose  upon  Italy  agents,  commibsaries,  inspectors,  who,  de- 
siring to  appropriate  all  the  administrative  powers  to  them- 
selves, thwarted  the  generals,  and  carried  disorder  into  our 
military  administrations.  Championet,  fatigued  with  all  their 
stratagems,  and  convinced  that  those  commissaries  put  the 
army  in  danger,  and  irritated  with  reason  at  seeing  them  in 
his  general  quarters,  giving  orders  opposed  to  his  own,  caused 
several  of  the  ministerial  agents  to  be  arrested.  He  ex- 
ceeded his  powers  without  doubt,  but  the  safety  of  the  army 
justified  his  conduct.  Deprived  of  his  employrlient,  and  ar- 
rested by  order  of  the  directory,  the  council  of  war  declared 
him  innocent,  and  the  only  effect  of  that  unreasonable  sever- 
ity, was  the  disorganization  of  our  army,  and  discontenting 
it  at  the  moment  of  combat.  If  the  council  of  Vienna  had 
dictated  such  measures,  it  could  not  have  chosen  a  better 
time  to  afflict  us.  Macdonald  replaced  Championnet.  Mas- 
sena took  the  command  of  all  the  armies  of  Germany. 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  103 

Scherer,  equally  as  unlucky  a  general  as  he  had  been  an  un- 
lucky minister,  was  replaced  too  late  by  Joubertand  Moreau. 
This  last,  after  having  retired  in  good  order  by  the  river  of 
Genoa,  waited  for  Macdonald  to  join  him  in  Tuscany,  and 
to  endeavour  by  that  junction  to  recall  fortune  beneath  our 
standards.  The  Cisalpine  evacuated  ;  the  rest  of  Italy  com- 
promised ;  Germany  in  the  hands  of  Austria — such  had  been 
in  a  few  weeks  the  combined  results  of  the  directorial  in- 
ability and  misfortune,  terrible  ordeal  of  governments  as  well 
as  individuals. 

IV.  THE    INTERIOR. 

What  an  effect  must  a  change  so  prompt  and  unexpected 
have  produced  in  the  interior  ?  In  the  first  three  months  the 
measures  to  complete  the  two  hundred  thousand  conscripts, 
and  to  have  them  equipped  by  the  municipalities,  were  de- 
creed by  urgency.  We  voted  in  the  month  of  Pluviose  for 
taxes  to  make  up  the  deficit  not  proved  of  fifty-five  millions  ; 
and  after  those  taxes  were  accorded,  they  had  the  courage 
to  affirm  to  us  that  the  deficit  was  sixty-seven  millions  ! 
Thus  the  last  taxes,  instead  of  making  up  the  deficit,  had 
increased  it.  We,  however,  resigned  ourselves,  and  granted 
unanimously  fresh  funds.  The  tax  on  gates  and  windoM^s 
was  doubled  :  all  gave  way  to  the  discussions  on  the  finances. 
We  desired  only  to  have  explained  to  us  the  cause  of  this 
eternal  deficit,  and  I  spoke  to  that  effect  as  follows  upon  the 
sitting  of  the  28th  of  Floreal : — 

*'  I  claim  also  the  priority  for  the  finances ;  but  we  must 
declare  that  there  still  exists  a  deficit,  not  because  the 
legislative  body  has  neglected  to  raise  receipl.s  to  the  level 
of  the  expenses,  but  because  the  vices  of  the  administration 
have  increased  the  expenses  beyond  the  receipts.  If  the 
new  deficit  really  exists,  it  has  no  right  to  exist.  That  dis- 
tinction ^ihould  be  loudly  published.  But,  however,  what- 
ever may  be  the  cause  of  the  disorder,  it  must  be  repaired. 
Cast  your  eyes  upon  our  threatened  frontiers,  upon  the 
Cif^alpine  overflowed  with  blood,  and  you  will  feel  the  ne- 
cessity to  make  that  lava  vomited  by  the  British  volcano  ret- 
rograde. Union  is  more  necessary  for  us  than  ever,  of 
men.  of  monev,  and  above  all,  public  spirit.  To  raise  that 
public  spirit,  which  can  alone  assure  to  us  all  the  rest,  let 
us  render  to  the  press  her  liberty ;  not  that  liberty  which 
disfigures  its  license,  but  that  which  does  not  permit  crime 
to  envelope  itself  in  darkness,  but  courageously  brands  it 
with  the  zeal  of  pubucity.  Bitter  recollections  may  without 
doubt  bring  forth  imprudent  reproaches;  but  the  wisdom 
and  the  concord  of  the  powers;  will  save  the  republic,  and 
particular  resentments  will  give  way  before  the  general  in- 
terest.   They  would  feel  only  that  neither  with  us,  or  with 


104  MEMOIRS   OF 

our  allies,  they  must  not  extinguish  generous  sentiments, 
nor  proclaim  patriotic  indifference  as  a  supreme  virtue. 
"When  we  have  given  our  armies  the  victorious  attitude  which 
they  ought  to  have,  then  we  shall  know  how,  with  a  firm 
hand,  to  establish  the  equilibrium  of  the  powers.  In  the* 
mean  time,  do  not  fear  to  give  new  strength  to  the  govern- 
ment ;  fear  only  to  retard  for  a  moment  a  remedy  for  the 
ills  of  the  state." 

All  then  was  granted,  but  in  vain :  there  was  no  longer 
either  intelligence  or  harmony  among  them.  The  directory 
occupied  itself  with  elections,  of  which  the  epoch  was  ar- 
rived in  the  midst  of  that  crisis  of  reverses.  It  was  also  the 
time  when  they  were  to  replace  one  of  the  directors.  Peo- 
ple's minds  were  in  a  state  of  excitement  from  the  danger, 
and  were  inclined  to  violent  measures.  The  elections  ap- 
peared to  be  for  the  greatest  part  in  favour  of  the  Jacobins  ; 
and  the  government,  seriously  alarmed,  was  not  afraid  of 
employing  every  means  to  influence  the  choice  of  the  elec- 
toral assemblies.  The  minister  of  the  interior  made  a  proc- 
lamation against  the  anarchists,  which  was  violently  at- 
tacked in  the  council  of  ancients.  On  our  side,  ministe- 
rial manoeuvres  against  the  independence  of  the  elections 
were  not  spared,  and  it  was  upon  this  subject  that  the  oppo- 
sition became  more  violent  than  ever.  To  make  up  the 
number  of  votes,  the  electoral  minorities  were  almost  every- 
where separated  from  the  majorities,  so  that,  in  fact,  there 
were  two  assemblies  instead  of  one :  and  as  it  was  for  the 
chamber  to  pronounce  upon  the  validity  of  the  elections,  by 
assuring  the  majority  of  the  councils,  they  could  make  the 
electoral  minorities  triumph  when  they  chose.  Such  a  sys- 
tem was,  unfortunately  for  the  directory,  its  only  chance  of 
safety ;  and  they  failed  in  that  plan  of  campaign  in  the  in- 
terior, as  they  had  done  in  their  plans  of  campaign  in  Ger- 
many and  Italy.  The  two  councils  defended  with  emula- 
tion the  independence  of  choice.  I  was  not  the  last  to  sig- 
nalize myself,  and  I  attacked  in  the  following  terms  the  elec- 
tions of  the  department  of  the  Escant : — 

"  Those  elections  might  be  approved  of,  if  they  could  only 
reproach  the  college  with  a  fault  in  the  forms  ;  but  can  they 
dare  to  call  so  the  illegal  arrestations,  the  arbitrary  deposings, 
the  menaces,  the  means  of  an  influence  so  truly  criminal  1 
Those  are  not  irregularities,  bivt  outrages  against  the  nation 
in  the  days  of  the  exercise  of  her  sovereignty.  If  they  call 
faults  in  the  forms — those  crimes  which  they  denounce  to  us 
. — all  then  is  but  a  form,  and  the  popular  omnipotence,  and 
the  representative  power,  and  the  electoral  right,  are  only 
vain  illusions.  I  demand  of  the  reporter  of  your  commis- 
sions a  precise  explanation.  Is  it  true  that  they  have  arrest- 
ed the  members  of  the  bureau"?  Is  it  true  that  they  have  de- 
posed the  functionaries  for  having  refused  to  vote  at  the  will 


LUCIEN' BONAPARTE.  105 

of  Others  ?  Is  it  true  that  they  proposed  to  an  elector  that 
infamous  compact,  either  to  suffer  a  mandate  of  arrest,  or  to 
vote  against  his  conscience  ?  If  these  details  are  true,  I  can- 
not see  in  the  elections  in  question  the  desire  of  the  people. 
I  see  only  crimes  committed  to  stifle  the  public  will  beneath 
the  particular  will.  Is  not  liberty  the  first  character  of  elec- 
tions ?  Where  there  is  no  liberty,  the  election  cannot  be 
valid,  whatever  may  be  the  number  of  the  majority." 

Notv/ithstanding  its  efforts,  the  directory  heard  every  day 
the  names  of  its  adversaries  come  out  of  the  electoral  urn. 
Jourdan,  whose  plan  of  campaign  had  been  neutralized  by 
the  contradictory  orders  of  the  minister,  Augereau,  who  had 
been  recompensed  for  the  eighteenth  Fructidor  by  distrust 
and  forgetfulness.  The  General  Lamarque,  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  ancient  conventionals,  formed  a  part  of  the  third  of 
the  new  legislative  body.  The  position  of  the  government, 
not  to  render  us  worse  than  w^e  were,  stood  in  need  of  suc- 
cess for  the  time  present,  and  a  ministerial  election  for  the 
morrow.  But  fortune  granted  them  nothing.  .  .  .  And 
to  complete  the  measure,  that  long  comedy  of  the  congress 
of  Rastadt,  which  had  only  served  to  protect  the  prepara- 
tions of  the  coalition,  terminated  by  the  most  horrible  trag- 
edy. Our  plenipotentiaries,  Roberjot  and  Bonnier,  were 
massacred  by  the  Austrian  hussars.  Jean  de  Bry  escaped, 
covered  with  wounds ;  and  his  letters  raised  the  minds  of  the 
people  to  the  highest  pitch  of  exasperation.  The  cry  of 
vengeance  resounded  at  every  sitting  in  the  council.  The 
most  speedy  means  appeared  the  best.  Order  was  forgotten, 
for  that  revolutionary  ardour  which  sees  only  the  end,  and 
springs  towards  it  by  the  shortest  road,  even  amid  preci- 
pices. 

The  chance  fell  upon  the  Director  Rewbell  to  leave  the  di- 
rectory. We  named  at  the  council  of  five  hundred  ten  can- 
didates to  replace  that  director.  The  name  of  Sieyes,  which 
we  had  placed  at  the  head  of  the  list,  was  marked  by  opinion 
as  the  hope  of  a  constitutional  reform,  of  which  we  all  felt 
the  inevitable  necessity.  The  council  of  ancients,  in  fact, 
chose  Sieyes  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  the  o-nly  one  of  our 
ministers  who  had  escaped  from  the  cavern  of  Rastadt. 
Jean  de  Bry  was  named  president  of  our  council.  Vengeance 
agriinst  the  Austrians  !  Disgust  of  the  directorial  system  ! 
A  vague  confidence  in  the  new  director!  Profound  and  too 
late  regrets !  The  absence  of  Napoleon,  of  whom  fame  pub- 
lished "constantly  the  new  successes  in  Syria!  Such  were 
the  sentiments  of  the  nation  at  that  period  of  distress. 


106  MEMOIRS    OP 


The  month  of  Praireal  to  the  15th  of  Messiaor,  year  7.     From 
the  21st  of  May  to  the  4th  of  July,  1799. 

Success  of  Suwarrow — Trotibles  in  the  Interior— Dismission  of  the  Di- 
rector Treilhard — Conspiracy  in  the  Councils  against  the  Directors 
Merlin  and  La  Reveillere — Distinction  between  the  Liberty  of  the 
Press,  and  the  Independence  of  the  Newspapers — My  Report  in  the 
name  of  the  Commission  of  Eleven — Permanence— Coup  d'Etat  of  the 
30th  Praireal— Renewal  of  the  Executive  Power — The  30th  Praireal 
compared  with  the  30th  July — Without  Popular  Voting,  there  is  no  Na- 
tional Legitimacy . 


I.  THE  POWERS. 

The  resistance  of  Prussia  to  the  suggestions  of  England, 
even  after  our  first  reverses,  was  attributed  to  the  influence 
of  Sieyes,  whose  acceptation  was  received  with  an  almost 
universal  satisfaction.  The  good  which  he  had  done  when 
ambassador  served  as  a  pretext  for  malevolence,  and  they 
repeated,  with  perfidious  concealment,  that  he  was  in  per- 
fect understanding  with  the  King  of  Berlin.  They  were 
certain  that  there  had  been  long  and  secret  conferences  be- 
tween them  ;  that  the  king  had  accompanied  him  for  several 
hours  beyond  the  gates  of  Potsdam.  They  talked  of  a  rich 
portrait,  and  transformed  into  a  mark  of  special  favour  a  gift 
which  it  is  the  custom  to  give  to  ambassadors  at  their  depar- 
ture. The  enemies  of  the  republic  felt,  that  as  the  hope  of  a 
political  amelioration  depended  upon  Sieyes,  it  was  upon 
him  that  they  must  strike.  The  new  director,  therefore,  was 
scarcely  installed,  but  they  had  succeeded  in  throwing  a  mys- 
terious suspicion  upon  his  intelligences  with  Prussia,  and 
they  endeavoured  to  interpret  thus  the  neutrality  of  that 
power. 

Spain  had  united  her  fleet  with  ours ;  and  that  junction, 
"which  had  given  us  for  a  moment  the  empire  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, obliged  England  to  augment  her  maritime  arma- 
ments. 

The  Russian  Turkish  fleet  overran  the  Adriatic,  and  men- 
aced the  port  of  Ancona.  Fortunately  it  had  not  any  troops 
to  disembark, 

Suwarrow  continued  his  triumphant  march  in  Italy;  he 
took  the  town  of  Milan,  and  a  few  days  after,  the  fortress, 
as  the  town  hoisted  the  Muscovite  flag. 

Upon  the  Rhine  they  fought  before  the  fortress  of  Kell. 
The  armies  of  the  archduke  extended  to  our  frontiers.  In 
Switzerland,  Massena  himself,  after  five  days  of  obstinate, 
bloody,  and  glorious  battles,  was  obliged  to  abandon  Zurich 
to  the  Austrians,  whose  eagle  also  dominated  over  the  sum* 
mits  of  Mont  St.  Gothard, 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  107 


II.    THE    ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

The  directorial  constitution,  imposed  upon  Helvetia  by  the 
proselytism  of  forms,  which  had  been  so  fatal  to  us,  had  ex- 
cited many  resentments  in  several  cantons,  and  above  all  at 
Zurich.  Massena  had  more  than  once  experienced  the  in- 
dolence and  ill  will  of  that  important  town  ;  and  our  enemies 
had  very  few  antipathies  to  encounter  upon  their  entry. 
Several  other  cantons,  and  above  all  the  high  valleys,  de- 
clared themselves  openly  against  us.  Eight  thousand  in- 
surgents combated  our  columns  on  both  sides  of  the  Rhone. 
Defeated  several  times  by  the  General  Xaintrailles,  they 
were  not  the  less  useful  auxiliaries  for  the  coalition. 

There  were  no  longer  any  republics  in  Italy,  if  we  except 
that  of  Genoa,  of  which  the  retreat  of  our  army  prolonged 
the  existence.  The  peasants  also  of  Oneglia  had  risen  in 
rebellion,  and  annoyed  us  very  much  by  opposing  the  arrival 
of  the  provisions  for  our  army.  The  priests  were  every- 
where at  the  head  of  the  revolted ;  the  pope  basely  and  use- 
lessly dragged  from  one  prison  to  another,  how  was  it  pos- 
sible not  to  irritate  the  whole  of  the  Catholic  population  ?      ■ 

The  Consuls  of  Rome,  the  Directors  of  Naples  and  Milan, 
had  taken  refuge  in  our  camp,  their  only  asylum.  The  Cis- 
alpine director,  Adelasio,  and  many  others  belonging  to  the 
republic,  were  seen  to  pass  to  the  service  of  Austria. 

"  It  is  belter,''^  they  observed  in  their  proclamations,  "  to 
obey  a  German  archduke  than  a  French  cominissary  .'"  In  op- 
position to  that  conduct,  we  learned  with  great  satisfaction 
that  the  General  Lahoz,  although  repulsed,  deposed,  and  ar- 
rested by  the  French  government,  for  having  protested 
against  the  innovations  of  Trouve,  had  not  hesitated  to  arm 
for  the  common  cause  in  the  moment  of  danger.  He  de- 
fended Bologna  as  long  as  it  was  possible  against  superior 
forces.  Some  time  afterward,  this  general,  overburdened 
with  new  persecutions,  turned  against  us  ;  but  at  the  time  in 
question,  his  honourable  conduct,  as  well  as  the  defection  of 
Adelasio,  was  equally  a  reproach  upon  the  politic  of  our  di- 
rectory; and  upon  the  successive  oad  news,  we  trembled  to 
see  our  destinies  confined  to  the  authors  of  so  many  disasters. 

'  III.    THE    ARMIES. 

Macdonald,  after  having  left  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and 
traversed  the  Roman  states,  dispersing  upon  his  road  swarms 
of  insurgents,  arrived  in  Tuscany.  That  province,  generally 
peaceful,  appeared  to  have  changed  its  character.  Cortona 
and  Arrezzo  vomited  against  us  multitudes  of  armed  and  fu- 
rious men :  it  was  necessary  to  subdue  them  to  assure  our 
retreat,  and  to  take  possession  of  both  those  towns  by  main 
force.    In  the  midst  of  so  many  obstacles,  Macdonald  drew 


108  MEMOIRS    OF 

near  to  Moreau,  who  saw  no  other  hope  of  safety  against 
Suwarrow,  except  that  junction  of  our  two  armies. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

Sieyes  was  at  the  Luxembourg ;  but  four  of  the  ancient 
directors  were  still  there.  .  .  .  The  opposition  calling  itself 
constitutional,  had  gained,  since  our  reverses,  a  great  num- 
ber of  partisans.  The  Jacobin  opposition  confounded  itself 
with  us.  This  movement,  which  at  first  we  did  not  perceive, 
became  evident  afterward:  the  directory  had  lost  the  ma- 
jority in  the  two  councils.  The  new  majority  beheld  Sieyes 
as  favourably,  as  it  beheld  with  an  evil  eye  his  four  colleagues. 
We  were  desirous,  however,  of  waiting  to  see  the  first  effects 
of  the  admission  of  the  statesman  into  that  disgraced  pen- 
tarchy.  We  resigned  ourselves  to  fresh  sacrifices :  the 
land  tax  contributions  were  augmented  a  tenth.  The  most 
influential  deputies  drew  towards  a  reconciliation  with  the 
government.  We  endeavoured  to  forget  the  past,  that  we 
might  avoid  a  more  disastrous  future  ;  and  Jacobins,  consti- 
tutionals, and  directorials,  were  for  several  days  confounded 
altogether  in  one  single  body. 

I  only  knew  the  orator  of  the  tiers  Hat  by  his  renown ;  and 
I  hastened.,  to  see  and  hoar  him.  I  saw  him  continually,  and 
I  conceived  so  very  high  an  esteem  for  him,  that  I  hoped  for 
the  present  salvation  of  the  republic,  and  its  legislative  ame- 
lioration for  the  future,  if  such  a  man  could  induce  his  col- 
leagues to  follow  his  steps. 

After  some  interviews  1  was  completely  devoted  to  him. 
That  sentiment  which  I  had  felt  at  first  but  vaguely,  became 
a  sentiment  of  profound  esteem.  The  legislative  power  and 
the  executive  power  had  been  ill  seated  in  the  constitution 
of  the  year  3.  There  was  no  longer  an  equilibrium  existing 
between  those  powers ;  we  went  from  one  masterpiece  of 
policy  to  another.  That  conservative  equilibrium  was  what 
we  wanted  to  acquire  to  found  a  durable  republic,  armt'd 
equally  against  the  excesses  of  the  government  and  the  rep- 
resentative chambers. 

But  the  point  in  question  was  not  of  amelioration :  the 
question  was  how  to  escape  from  Suwarrow.  Unfortunately 
the  ancient  directors,  envious  of  their  new  colleague,  instead 
of  aiding  him,  took  a  great  pleasure  in  thwarting  him.  Not 
only  they  did  not  profit  by  the  new  resources  that  were  ac- 
corded to  them  by  the  councils,  but  they  even  had  the  auda- 
city to  reply  to  our  indulgence,  by  a  report  from  the  minister 
of  the  finances  which  justified  the  deficit,  and  attributed  all 
the  reverses  to  us,  because  we  had  not  given  enough.  That 
report  awakened  the  councils.  We  then  formed  the  resolu- 
tion to  renew  the  directory  without  delay.  We  considered 
that  without  that  masterpiece  of  policy,  the  repubhc  had 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  109 

everything  to  fear.  We  resolved,  therefore,  to  begin  by  an 
individual  attack,  which  at  the  same  time  should  not  deviate 
from  legal  order.  Treilhard,  one  of  the  directors,  had  been 
named  before  a  year  had  elapsed  since  he  had  left  the  legisla- 
tive body.  It  was  agreed  to  make  use  of  that  pretext  of 
form,  to  turn  out  Treilhard,  and  give  to  Sieyes  a  colleague 
who  partook  of  his  opinions.  We  fixed  our  choice  upon  a 
deputy  of  the  ancients,  Roger  Ducos  ;  and  the  attack  against 
the  government  a  moment  suspended,  recommenced  more 
regularly.  This  time  it  was  combined  in  the  two  councils; 
it  struck  progressively,  but  with  a  certain  blow. 

Rewbell,  upon  quitting  the  directory,  entered  the  council 
of  ancients.  Scherer,  the  ex-minister  of  war,  was  his  rela- 
tion.    Rewbell  had  always  looked  up  to  him  for  support. 

At  the  sitting  of  the  6th  of  Praireal,  Dubois  Dubay,  in  a 
report  against  the  dilapidators,  signalized  Scherer  for  the 
public  vengeance  ;  he  accused  the  directory  of  having  caused 
the  misfortunes  of  the  state  by  the  most  disordinate  and 
shameful  adniinistration.  He  proposed  to  pursue  the  dilapi- 
dators, whether  they  were  covered  with  a  senatorial  robe, 
or  whether  they  wore  the  mantle  of  a  director.  Rewbell 
considered  himself  personally  attacked  in  that  indication, 
and  he  protested  against  it  with  energy.  They  passed  to 
the  order  of  the  day  ;  but  the  attack  resounded,  and  was  re- 
peated in  the  council  of  five  hundred.  They  summoned  the 
directory  upon  the  accounts  of  Scherer,  who  demanded  of 
his  own  accord  to  be  judged,  and  surrendered  himself  pris- 
oner. They  replied  as  he  merited,  to  the  report  of  the 
minister  of  the  finances,  whose  duplicity  was  evident. 
They  demanded  the  accounts  of  the  different  ministers. 
Briot  and  Garreau  declared  that  the  directory  had  given 
funds  for  a  representation  of  the  opera  of  Adrian,  where, 
said  they,  a  triumphant  Caesar  was  shown  at  the  moment 
when  the  C?esar  of  Germany  had  just  conquered  our  armies. 
The  last  accusation,  frivolous  as  it  was,  showed  to  what 
a  point  opinion  was  irritated  against  the  government ;  it  was 
received,  and  the  ministers  were  denounced  one  after  another. 
A  pamphlet  full  of  invective  was  diffused  everywhere  with 
profusion ;  and  as  the  censure  upon  the  nev/spapers  existed 
since  the  18th  FructiJor,  tiiey  demanded  the  report  of  the 
law  of  censure,  and  they  discussed  the  project  of  the  com- 
missions, of  which  1  was  a  member,  upon  the  abuss  of  the 
press.  The  diiectors  could  no  longer  dissimulate  tl.^t  me 
storm  menaced  them  ;  the  Luxembourg  begin  to  be  deserted, 
except  the  quarter  of  Sieyes  una  that  of  Barras,  where  in- 
trigue still  retR'ii'^d  some  unq-iiet  partisan?-. 

The  public  galleries  of  the  councils  were  filled  with  fresh 
spectators,  who  appeared  to  foresee  an  approaching  tempest ; 
they  applauded,  notwithstanding  the  rules,  everything  ihat 
was  said  against  the  government,  and  their  clamours  exer- 

K 


110  MEMOIRS    OF 

cised  the  patience  of  the  president,  and  recalled  the  tumults 
of  the  convention. 

The  news  which  we  received  from  the  departments  of  the 
West,  and  the  Mide,  brought  every  day  fresh  aliments  to  the 
effervescence;  the  reve"ses  of  our  armies  had  encouraged 
unworthy  Frenchmen,  vv^ho  did  not  blush  to  make  a  common 
cause  with  strangers.  Numerous  assassinations  had  taken 
place  among  the  republicans,  the  public  functionaries,  and 
the  purchasers  of  national  domains.  We  addressed  to  the 
directory  a  message  which  resembled  very  strongly  an  ac- 
cusation, ill  which  were  the  following  passages  : — 

"  The  security  of  the  nation  is  menaced  from  without. 
Six  months  back  we  were  victorious  everywhere.  It  is  not 
proper  for  the  French  people  to  keep  any  longer  an  attitude 
of  humility  before  other  people.  Within,  public  rumour  in- 
forms us,  that  there  exists  a  great  fermentation.  Before  we 
proceed  to  take  any  measures,  the  council  thinks  it  right, 
citizen  directors,  to  demand  information  from  you  ;  and  we 
beg  of  you  to  grant  it  without  further  delay." 

The  same  day  (17th  Praireal)  the  council  voted  an  address 
to  the  French  people.  That  direct  communication  between 
the  nation  and  its  representatives,  indicated  sufficiently  that 
they  were  diverging  from  the  ordinary  paths,  and  preparing 
opinion  for  the  measures  upon  \vhi.ch  they  had  already  de- 
termined. 

Three  days  afterward,  the  two  councils  celebrated  a  fu- 
neral festival  in  honour  of  our  plenipotentiaries  who  were 
cowardly  assassinated  at  Rastadt.  The  council  of  five  hun- 
dred offered  a  touching  peculiarity,  Jean  de  Bry,  the  only  one 
of  the  three  victims  who  had  escaped  from  death,  occupied 
the  armchair  ;  his  discourse  drew  tears  from  every  eye. 

The  directory,  notwithstanding  its  inquietude,  was  igno- 
rant of  the  plan  adopted  by  its  adversaries  :  it  thought  it  be- 
held its  loss  certain  if  they  took  from  it  the  dictatorship  of 
the  periodical  papers.  It  collected  all  that  remained  to  it  of 
courage  to  defend  itself  upon  that  difficult  ground.  The  few 
friends  who  had  not  abandoned  them  united  with  them. 
Bailleul  published  a  very  ingenious  pamphlet  to  attenuate 
our  accusations.  At  length  both  side  sustained,  during  sev- 
eral sittings  for  and  against  the  liberty  of  the  press,  an  ob- 
stinate struggle,  which  began  in  the  first  days  of  the  month, 
and  which  afterward  we  saw  renewed  twenty  times  in 
our  representative  assemblies.  Among  the  orators,  Creuz6 
Latouche  for  the  censure,  and  Chenier  against  it,  pronounced 
some  eloquent  harangues  ;  but  Le  Cointe  Puyraveau  was 
the  most  remarkable,  and  his  words  had  shaken  more  than 
one  opinion.  Le  Cointe  Puyraveau  had  renewed  the  rea- 
soning, that  the  friend  of  Mirabeau,  our  colleague  Cabanis, 
had  already  demonstrated  to  our  tribune.  "  I  make,"  said 
he,  (upon  the  sitting  of  the  9th  of  Praireal,)  "  a  great  differ- 


LTJCIEN   BONAPARTE.  Ill 

ence  between  the  liberty  of  the  press  and  the  independence 
of  the  newspapers.  Let  us,  I  beg  of  you,  perfectly  com- 
prehend that  idea ;  it  is  essential  for  the  developments  into 
which  I  am  about  to  enter.  Let  us  look  behind  us :  we 
shall  see  the  liberty  of  the  press  profaned  by  men  who  took 
possession  of  it  to  dishonour  it  by  the  most  licentious  ex- 
cesses; by  confounding  the  independence  of  the  newspa- 
pers with  the  right  of  expressing  their  thoughts.  Observe 
what  has  passed,  and  you  will  see  that  a  tolerated  license 
has  constantly  been  the  presage  of  some  great  movement  in 
the  state.  All  the  factions  have  signalized,  by  the  audacity 
of  the  press,  those  excesses  which  they  intended  to  commit. 
Often  have  conspirators  thus  announced  beforehand  their  projects. 
Under  the  legislative,  under  the  convention,  a  man  whose 
name  cannot  be  pronounced  without  blushing,  demanded  not 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  but  the  independence  of  the  news- 
papers, and  who  in  his  writings  committed  the  most  violent 
excesses.  It  was  in  vain  that  by  decree  he  was  declared  in- 
sane— in  vain  that  he  appeared  before  the  tribunal.  The 
voice  of  calumny  was  the  strongest;  the  firmest  republicans 
were  the  victims,  and  the  friends  of  Marat  himself  finished 
by  dreading  the  envenomed  shafts  of  his  pen.  T  must  recall 
to  your  minds  what  the  liberty  of  the  newspapers  has  done 
since: — re-established  in  its  rights,  it  began  by  caressing 
the  convention  which  had  given  it  life,  and  finished  by  pro- 
voiiing  its  destruction.  It  was  that  which  armed  the  fac- 
tions of  Vendemiaire  ;  it  was  the  most  terrible  arm  of  the 
reactors.  It  brought  the  horrors  of  the  revolutionary  gov- 
ernment, and  afterward  the  horrors  of  the  reaction.  But 
so  many  excesses  brought  at  last  their  own  remedy ;  the 
18th  of  Fructidor  came  and  shone  upon  France.  The  papers 
were  subdued,  and  then  the  calm  was  established;  the  pas- 
sions are  calmed.  We  have  had  no  more  struggles,  no 
more  agitations." 

Some  voices  called  out,  "  No  more  liberty,"  and  Le  Cointe 
Puyraveau  replied  with  warmth,  "  Representatives,  you  de- 
sire liberty,  but  our  enemies  desire  latitude.  Have  they  not 
already  announced  that  even  this  discussion  will  be  the  sig- 
nal of  trouble  and  disorder'?  I  may  perhaps  deceive  njyself, 
but  the  machinations  of  the  journalists,  who  think  to  take 
you  unawares,  may  prove  fatal,  except  you  baffle  them. 
When  we  suffer  reverses,  when  all  the  public  enemies  dis- 
pute with  us,  ought  we  to  place  a  powerful  arm  in  their 
hands  \  If  you  revoke  the  law  of  the  nineteenth  Fructidor, 
at  the  same  moment  the  forty-four  trumpets  of  royalism  that 
were  broken  at  that  period  will  again  resound  their  fatal  con- 
certs. You  will  have  a  quantity  of  newspapers  sold  to  roy- 
alism, others  to  the  exaggerated  party  whose  hopes  we  do 
not  certainly  desire  to  excite.  Strangers  will  have  theirs, 
and  will  breathe  among  us  discords,  suspicion,  and  party 


112  MEMOIRS    OF 

spirit.    You  talk  of  dilapidators But  those  dilapi- 

dators  have  got  g-old  ;  and  can  you  doubt  that  with  gold  they 
will  not  find  journalists  disposed  to  walk  in  the  path  they 
choose  to  trace  1  A  greater  evil  awaits  us,  if  the  independ- 
ence of  the  newspapers  is  re-established ;  we  shall  behold 
everywhere  an  erroneous  opinion  formed,  which  they  will  tell  us 
is  the  opinion  of  the  majority  !  Thus  the  Jacobins,  the  mother 
societies,  the  adopted  societies,  will  set  themselves  up  as 
the  organs  of  public  opinion.  It  is  not  public  opinion  that 
will  inform  you  of  the  independence  of  the  newspapers — you 
will  only  see  traced  the  opinion  of  parties." 

Thus  spoke  one  of  the  most  sincere  republicans.  Many 
reasonable  people  thought  like  Le  Cointe  and  Cabanis.  It 
was  only  in  a  time  of  calm,  they  said,  that  a  good  citizen 
could  weaken  the  government.  The  periodical  papers  ought 
to  be  considered  not  as  books,  but  like  the  preachings  in  the 
streets:  their  dependance  cannot  prejudice  the  propagation 
of  the  true  public  opinion,  of  which  the  representatives  of 
the  people  are  the  only  authorized  organs  ;  for  never  had 
any  person  thought  of  submitting  to  the  censure  the  account 
exactly  rendered  of  all  the  speeches  pronounced  at  the  legis- 
lative tribunes.  Those  speeches  were  not  subject  to  the 
censure ;  the  dependance  of  the  papers  puts  limits  only  to 
the  political  preachings  of  individuals  not  authorized  by  the 
people,  and  Avho  might  be  neither  citizens  nor  Frenchmen, 
for  nothing  could  prevent  a  foreign  minister  from  creating 
and  sustaining  a  hundred  newspapers  which  might  preach 
in  every  public  place  the  overthrow  of  our  laws,  and  which 
could  not  be  punished  until  after  it  had  done  an  evil  which 
would  be  reproduced  the  next  day.  The  tardy  chastisement 
of  the  incendiary  would  not  have  prevented  the  fire. 

All  these  reasons  could  not  stop  us.  We  replied  that  the 
newspapers  did  not  express  an  erroneous  public  opinion,  ex- 
cept in  those  melancholy  times  of  censure,  where  the  press 
repeats  only,  under  a  thousand  different  forms,  the  lesson  of 
the  minister.  A  liberal  paper,  not  paid,  not  being  able  to 
sustain  itself  but  by  the  adhesion  of  a  great  number  of  sub- 
scribers, represents  the  true  opinion  of  a  great  number  of 
citizens  ;  and  the  reunion  of  all  the  collective  opinions,  if  it 
is  not  the  public  opinion,  is  at  least  that  which  approaches 
the  nearest  after  the  universal  voting.  As  for  the  chastise- 
ment after  the  blow,  it  will  not  prevent  the  evil  from  having 
produced  its  effect.  I  replied  that  the  efticacy  of  the  penal- 
ties that  w^e  proposed  must  assure  all  the  world  that  our  pro- 
ject of  law  was  almost  equivalent  to  the  censure,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  abuses ;  or  to  calm  the  alarms  of  the  citizens,  it 
was  right  to  give  them  the  means  of  expressing  their 
thoughts — that  the  opinion  of  the  national  tribunes  was  not 
sufficient  for  a  free  people,  since  even  the  conduct  and  the 
discourse  of  the  deputies  was  submitted  to  the  judgment,  no* 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  113 

only  of  their  constituents,  but  to  that  of  every  Frenchman, 
whether  they  were  electors  or  not. 

These  answers  were  not  without  force  in  theory.  The 
previous  censure  excluded  all  political  liberty  ;  and  v/hen  one 
is  reduced  to  have  recourse  to  that  fatal  weapon  we  must 
be  very  near  to  a  state  of  siege  ;  an  imminent  peril  can  alone 
justify  those  two  measures.  Eut  theory  apart,  on  which 
side  was  the  plain  dealing  in  our  discussion  1  Will  it  be 
thought  that  our  repressive  laws,  substituted  for  the  censure, 
satisfied  the  directorial  authority.  Can  we  suppose  that  the 
penalties  proposed  in  our  project  were  sufficient  1  No,  cer- 
tainly not.  We  felt,  on  the  contrary,  that  our  law  v^ould  be 
illusory,  and  that  was  the  reason  it  suited  us.  We  wished 
to  break  the  executive  power  which  was  losing  the  repub- 
lic, and  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  disarm  a  power  which 
was  our  enemy,  and  that  we  had  condemned.  The  passion 
of  the  moment  overbalanced  in  our  minds  the  reasons  of  our 
adversaries  ;  and  the  directory  was  deprived,  in  those  crit- 
ical days,  of  the  preventive  inspection  of  the  papers  ;  that 
example  proves  that  an  absolute  opinion  must  sometimes 
give  way  in  practice  to  a  relative  opinion.  /  say  must  give 
loay,  because  I  voted  then  as  I  should  vote  now  under  the 
same  circumstances.  We  acted  like  good  citizens  in  de- 
stroying the  government  that  destroyed  us ;  but  if  that  gov- 
ernm.ent  had  been  good,  our  conduct  would  have  been  that 
of  enemies  of  the  people.  These  details  may  perhaps  not 
be  useless  in  aiding  to  judge  public  men  in  the  time  of  a  rev- 
olutionary crisis.  He  who  has  navigated  in  the  storm,  is 
better  able  to  judge  how  to  guide  the  vessel  during  those 
hours  when  life  is  at  stake.  The  measures,  therefore,  taken 
in  France,  after  the  affair  of  the  horrible  infernal  machine, 
(except  the  attack  against  the  jury  which  nothing  can  ex- 
cuse,) the  law,  which,  without  re-establishing  the  censure, 
pronounced  against  the  license  of  the  periodical  papers  ex- 
ceeding great  penalties  of  repression,  appeared  to  me  to  be 
wise,  suitable,  and  patriotic,  and  completely  justified  by  the 
events :  the  censure  being  out  of  the  question,  the  penalties 
should  be  sufficiently  strong  not  to  be  illusory.  They  would 
have  taken,  under  the  same  circumstances,  measures  at  least 
equally  as  severe  in  a  republic.  The  task  of  governments 
is  not  so  easy  in  these  days  that  they  should  be  judged  with- 
out a  little  indulgence,  if  they  do  not  wish  to  overturn  it. 

Non  ignara  mali  miseris  sucurrere  disco.  The  law  of  the 
censure  abolished,  they  proceeded  without  interruption  to 
the  discussion  of  the  project  of  repression  that  we  had  pre- 
sented. We  desired  a  prompt  decision.  Our  ulterior  pro- 
jects were  known  to  above  a  hundred  members  of  the  two 
councils,  and  might  have  been  revealed  by  the  slightest  in- 
discretion ;  and  the  directory  disposed  of  numerous  troops. 
We  pressed  therefore  for  the  voting  of  the  new  law ;  but  an 

K2 


114  MEMOIRS    OF 

unforeseen  incident  arrived  to  retard  its  adoption.  Carrere, 
deputy  of  the  Rhone,  proposed,  in  the  course  of  the  debate, 
several  measures  which  might  have  made  us  lose  time  ;  he 
demanded  the  formation  of  a  republican  jury  of  censure  ;  the 
diminution  of  the  stamp  duty  upon  the  newspapers  ;  the  pro- 
hibition of  anonymous  writings,  &c.  Fortunately  that  orator, 
in  signalizing  the  indolence  of  public  opinion,  had  exagger- 
ated even  to  the  point  of  affirming  that  the  murders  of  Ra- 
stadt  had  excited  only  a  very  feeble  indignation.  I  profited 
(upon  the  sitting  of  the  22d  Praireal)  by  the  discontent 
which  that  assertion  had  raised  in  the  chamber  to  see  only 
that,  in  the  discourse  of  Carrere,  which  would  repulse  en- 
tirely all  his  propositions — I  spoke  as  follows : 

"  I  have  just  heard  a  sentence  from  the  last  speaker  which 
every  one  of  us  is  ready  to  deny.  It  has  excited  in  this  as- 
sembly an  agitation  which  still  continues.  .  .  Where,  then, 
has  it  been  found  that  the  assassinations  at  Rastadt  have  ex- 
cited only  a  feeble  indignation  in  France  1  That  assertion 
is  injurious — it  is  false.     (A  unanimous  cry  of  '  Yes  !  yes !') 

*'  What  then !  have  you  not  heard  the  cries  of  vengeance 
resound  again  from  one  end  of  the  republic  to  the  other, 
and  which  are  become  the  song  of  departure  of  our  youthful 
defenders  ?  Do  you  not  perceive  on  every  side  the  striking 
marks  of  zeal  that  popular  indignation  has  excited  ?  Recall, 
then,  the  generous  accents  of  that  immense  crowd  which 
covered  the  Champ  de  Mars,  and  shed  tears  upon  the  tombs 
of  our  ministers.  What  sentiments  did  you  read  in  their 
countenances  ]  What  oaths  have  you  heard  1  France  in- 
different to  the  crime  of  Rastadt]  Already  our  armies, 
electrified  by  that  fatal  news,  have  spread  terror  amid  the 
ranks  of  our  enemies.  From  the  bottom  of  the  Helvetian 
valleys,  to  the  summit  of  the  Apennines,  one  single  cry  has 
been  heard.  The  shades  of  the  victims  started — the  mur- 
derers trembled — that  terrible  cry,  so  often  repeated  in  this 
assembly  and  throughout  every  part  of  the  republic,  must 
again  answer  for  us  here :  Vengeance,  vengeance  upon  the 
assassins  !" 

The  whole  assembly  rose  repeating  my  last  words.  The 
galleries  burst  forth  with  reiterated  acclamations  ;  and  the 
propositions  of  our  colleague  had  not  any  result. 

Sieyes  had  caused  the  General  Joubert  to  be  named  to  the 
command  of  Paris.  It  was  necessary  to  act.  A  pamphlet 
had  dared  to  aver  that  it  was  not  the  Russians  of  Suwarrow 
who  were  to  be  feared,  but  the  Russians  of  the  councils.  .  . 
They  decided  to  attack  the  election  of  the  Director  Treilhard 
the  next  day,  and  above  all  to  declare  itself  in  permanence. 

The  directory  had  not  yet  answered  the  message  of  the 
17th  Prairael,  where  we  demanded  an  account  of  our  sil na- 
tion, interior  and  exterior.  Poulain  GranJpre,  at  the  sitting 
of  the  29th,  proposed  to  send  a  second  message  more  per- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  115 

emptory,  which  should  terminate  by  the  terrible  declara- 
tion tiiat  the  council  would  remain  in  permanence  until  the 
answer  of  the  government.  That  measure  was  carried  by  a 
great  majority.  The  council  of  ancients  followed  our  ex- 
ample. The  directory  replied  to  us  instantly,  that  it  would 
put  itself,  like  us,  in  permanence,  and  that  we  should  receive 
the  next  day  all  the  information  that  we  demanded  upon  the 
state  of  the  republic.  It  was  accepting  our  challenge,  but 
all  the  parts  were  distributed ;  but  instead  of  adjourning  till 
the  next  day,  we  continued  our  sitting  all  the  night.  Ber- 
gasse  came  to  announce  at  the  tribune  the  election  of  Treil- 
hard,  and  he  had  not  much  trouble  to  convince  us  of  the  de- 
fects in  the  form !     We  were  convinced  beforehand 

Scarcely  would  they  listen  to  a  courageous  voice  in  favour 
of  Treilhard.  His  election  was  annulled  after  two  consec- 
utive readings.  At  midnight  the  council  of  ancients  during 
the  sitting  confirmed  our  resolution.  At  near  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning  they  suspended  the  legislative  sittings  till  ten 
o'clock. 

The  next  day,  the  message  of  the  directory  upon  the  situ- 
ation of  affairs,  read  at  the  tribune  of  the  five  hundred,  was 
listened  to  with  a  sullen  silence,  and  sent  to  the  united  com- 
missions. We  proceeded  to  the  nomination  of  ten  candi- 
dates to  take  the  place  of  Treilhard.  From  that  list,  the 
ancients  chose  the  Citizen  Gohier,  ex-minister  of  justice,  who 
had  the  advantage,  by  some  voices,  of  Roger  Ducos.  Thus 
was  the  first  part  of  the  plan  that  had  been  agreed  upon  ac- 
complished. 

The  30th  Praireal,  Bertrand  da  Calvados  pronounced  against 
the  message  of  the  directory  a  powerful  philipic  of  logic  and 
passionate  movements. 

"  What  then  1  the  directory  thinks  to  justify  itself  in  ac- 
cusing the  legislative  body  and  in  offering  it  a  generous  par- 
don. What  an  excess  of  audacity,  perfidy,  and  dislionesty  ! 
What ! — when  in  the  arsenal  of  Paris  alone,  a  hundred 
and  thirty-three  thousand  guns  were  sold  at  twenty  sous  a 
piece,  when  they  v>-,.'re  worth  at  the  least  twenty  francs  .  .  . 
And  it  is  the  legislative  body  whom  they  accuse  for  the  want 
of  arms  !  What  then  ? — the  ministerial  reports  fixed  the  ef- 
fective of  our  armies  at  437,000  men,  when  at  the  same 
time  they  did  not  amount  to  300,000  :  and  they  dare  com- 
plain of  the  penury  of  the  treasury!  What! — because  we 
have  rejected  the  odious  tax  upon  salt,  and  have  replaced  it 
by  eighty-eight  millions  of  new  resources,  they  dare  to  re- 
proach us  with  the  deficit!  Was  it  us  who  named  your 
Rapinat,  your  Trouve,  your  Scherer  "?  And  you  talk  of  par- 
doning us,  instead  of  miploring  for  yourselves  the  generosity 
and  commiseration  of  the  French  people  !  You  have  not 
placed  in  judgment  the  authors  of  your  reverses  ;  and  you 
have  dragged   before  the   tribunals  the   chiefs  who  have 


116  MEMOIRS   OF 

gained  our  victories !  You  propose  to  us  a  reunion  !  And 
I  propose  to  you  to  reflect,  if  you  can  still  preserve  your 
■functions.  You  have  no  longer  our  confidence  :  you  can  no 
longer  do  any  good  but  in  retiring." 

Boulai  de  la  Meurthe,  succeeding  to  Bertrand, .fixed  more 
firmly  what  they  desired.  He  nominally  accused  the  Direc- 
tors Merlin  and  La  ReveiUere,  and  declared  that  those  two 
men  must  leave  the  Luxembourg  to  establish  union  in  the 
executive  power,  and  that  they  should  be  forced  if  thej'^  re- 
fused. He  proposed  to  name  a  special  commission  of  nine 
members  charged  to  present  all  the  measures  that  circum- 
stances might  require.  The  General  Jourdan  caused  two 
more  members  to  be  added  to  that  extraordinary  commission, 
which  was  composed  of  Boulai  de  la  Meurthe,  Bergoing, 
Fran§ois  de  Nantes,  Talot,  Petiet,  Joubert  de  Cherault, 
Quirot,  Poullain,  Grandpre,  Augereau,  Jourdan,  and  myself. 

We  had  scarcely  been  named,  when  the  demissions  of  the 
Directors  Merlin  and  La  ReveiUere  were  brought  to  us. 
The  council  formed  immediately  two  decuple  lists  for  the 
two  vacant  places  ;  and  the  General  Moulins,  and  the  friend 
of  Sieyes,  Roger  Ducos,  completed  the  new  government. 
Barras,  among  the  ancient  directors,  was  the  only  one  that 
remained. 

The  government  was  thus  renewed  the  30th  of  Praireal, 
without  any  violent  struggle,  thanks  to  the  docility  of  our 
adversaries,  who  yielded  to  the  threat  of  an  accusation. 
The  first  Messidor  I  made,  in  the  name  of  the  commission- 
ers of  the  eleven,  the  following  report : — 

*'  Representatives  of  the  people — Struck  with  the  misfor- 
tunes of  the  country,  you  demanded  of  the  executive  direc- 
tory, in  your  message  of  the  17th  Praireal,  what  causes  had 
brought  the  interior  and  the  exterior  to  the  deplorable  state 
in  which  you  find  it  at  this  present  moment.  Upon  the  24th 
Praireal,  you  declared  that  you  would  remain  in  permanence 
until  the  arrival  of  the  answer  of  the  directory  ;  and  it  was 
the  determination  of  each  of  us  to  remain  as  long  as  it  was 
necessary  for  the  w^elfare  of  the  republic.  By  that  decla- 
ration of  permanence,  you  have  called  upon  you  the  atten- 
tion of  every  Frenchman :  you  have  constituted  yourselves 
more  particularly  in  the  presence  of  the  people. 

"  For  if  the  people  never  lose  sight  of  their  representa- 
tives, it  is  chiefly  upon  those  decisive  occasions  when  their 
affections  repose  upon  their  chiefs.  You  have  all  felt  what 
duties  that  solemn  permanence  imposes  on  you,  and  you 
will,  by  fulfilling  it,  answer  the  expectations  of  every  citizen. 

"  To  answer  that  expectation,  it  is  requisite  to  know  and 
destroy  the  evils  which  aflHict  the  country.  The  executive 
power,  in  its  message  of  the  29th,  indicated  the  waste  of  the 
treasure,  and  demanded  of  you  fresh  resources  of  finances 
as  the  only  remedy.    The  deficiency  of  funds  and  credit  caa 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  117 

only  be  imputed  to  the  leg-islative  body.  That  artful  in- 
dication has  pointed  you  out  to  the  nation  as  the  authors  of 
the  pubUc  misfortunes ;  it  has  thrown  upon  you  the  defeats 
of  our  armies  and  the  disorders  of  the  interior;  it  has  re- 
newed the  perfidious  insinuations  so  many  times  directed 
against  you  during  the  servitude  of  the  press. 

"  Such  are  the  painful  reflections  which  result  from  the 
message  of  the  •29th  Praireal — that  message  promises  a  sec- 
ond more  precise.  Without  doubt,  the  respective  dignity 
and  union  of  the  first  authorities,  re-estabhshed  by  you,  must 
assure  you  a  nii-re  satisfactory  answer,  and  more  sincere  in- 
formation. The  fatal  impression  of  the  first  message  may, 
notwithstanding,  alter  the  truth.  We  must  demonstrate  the 
falsity ;  we  owe  it  to  France,  to  the  armies,  and  to  our- 
selves. 

"  The  word  deficit  is  a  veil  with  which  they  obstinately 
cover  the  picture  of  all  the  errors.  It  is  in  vain  that  they 
have  endeavoured  to  thicken  this  officious  veil.  It  has  not 
deceived  your  solicitude ;  they  have  in  vain  attempted  to 
give  a  change  to  the  national  indignation. 

"  You  have  observed,  representatives  of  the  people,  with 
what  obstinacy  they  have  persisted,  even  to  this  moment, 
upon  the  deficit  as  the  cause  of  all  our  misfortunes.  We 
have  no  occasion  certainly  to  produce  here  the  calculations 
so  often  repeated  by  our  commissions  of  the  finances.  Those 
calculations  have  remained  without  an  answer.  What  can 
there  be  in  common,  in  fact,  between  this  pretended  deficit, 
demonstrated  false  so  many  times,  with  the  reverses  brought 
on  by  the  most  complete  inability,  hy  the  most  culpable  in- 
difl'erence  '?  If  the  authors  of  that  strange  message  had 
better  consulted  facts,  they  would  at  least,  in  default  of 
justifying  themselves,  have  avoided  the  reproach  of  dishon- 
esty that  every  citizen  has  a  right  to  accuse  them  with.  Up 
to  this  moment  a  deficit  cannot  have  existed  in  the  expenses 
of  the  war,  since  the  open  credit  to  the  minister  of  war  is 
far  from  being  exhausted.  The  observations  in  the  message 
are  then  chimerical;  they  will  appear  far  more  chimerical  if 
we  compare  them  with  what  follows.  We  can  affirm,  with 
the  confidence  of  experience,  that  an  army,  a  standing  army, 
of  four  hundred  thousand  men,  ought  not  to  cost  more  tlian 
two  hundred  and  eighty  millions,  comprising  ail  materials; 
that  is  to  say,  seven  hundred  francs  a  year  for  a  man.  The 
first  eight  rnonths  of  the  year  7  ought  not  to  consume  but 
the  two  thirds  of  that  sum,  or  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
millions,  by  calculating  the  effective  number  of  our  armies 
at  four  hundred  thousand  men,  and  the  individual  expenses 
at  seven  hundred  francs — the  sum  paid  by  the  directory  in  its 
last  demand — as  the  minister  Scherer,  upon  the  first  of  Ven-- 
demiaire,  declared  the  state  of  the  army  at  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  thousand  men,  and  the  directory,  after  its  last 


118  MEMOIRS    OP 

message,  had  decreed,  up  to  the  5th  of  Praireal,  two  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  millions  for  the  expenses  of  the  war. 
The  same  result  is  consigned  in  the  statements  remitted  by 
the  minister  of  war  to  our  Colleague  Genissieux. 

"  During  the  first  eight  months  of  that  year,  the  govern- 
ment has  expended  fifty- eight  millions  more  (two  hundred 
and  forty-five,  instead  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven)  than 
was  necessary  for  an  army  of  four  hundred  thousand  men! 
and  our  army  was  only  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  thou- 
sand! It  is  not  then  the  insufficiency  of  the  funds  which 
caused  the  failure  of  all  the  military  operations. 

"  The  diff"erent  reports  of  your  commissions  of  the  finances 
have  already  shown  that  the  receipts  ought  to  be  nearly  upon 
a  level  with  the  expenses.  The  delays  in  collecting  cannot 
be  attributed  to  the  non-performance  of  the  existing  laws, 
and  it  is  the  directory  alone  that  is  responsible  for  the  non- 
performance of  those  laws.  Ought  the  legislative  body  to 
vote  another  hundred  millions,  when  the  millions  that  were 
voted  were  not  paid  in  consequence  of  the  vices  of  the  ad- 
ministration. New  taxes  would  only  have  increased  the 
deficiency. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  passed  very  lightly  over  the 
contributions  of  the  conquered  countries  ;  they  have  scarcely 
figured  in  the  picture  of  our  resources. 

"  No,  representatives  of  the  people,  it  is  not  the  deficit 
which  has  caused  the  misfortunes  of  the  state :  it  is  the  sys- 
tem that  has  been  followed  by  the  executive  power  for  this 
last  year;  that  system  has  been  the  most  powerful  auxiliary 
of  the  coalition — it  has  prepared  the  successes.  It  is  to  that 
we  owe  the  disorganization  of  our  armies,  the  pillage  and 
overthrow  of  the  allied  republics,  and  the  momentary  weak- 
ening of  the  energies  of  the  republic. 

"  Our  armies !  surprised  but  not  vanquished ;  the  destitu- 
tion in  which  they  were  left  could  alone  have  induced  them 
to  retreat.  Upon  the  eve  of  battle,  they  were  deprived  of  all 
that  could  assure  their  success.  They  have  not  been  re- 
cruited. Their  administration  has  been  destroyed  ;  and  the 
dilapidations  encouraged  and  unpunished,  they  have  dared  to 
attempt  even  our  arsenals. 

"  Since  the  opening  of  the  session,  these  abuses  have  attract- 
ed your  attention ;  but  your  good  intentions  have  been  para- 
lyzed. The  directory  has  daily  abused  the  immense  authority 
that  the  18th  of  Fructidor  left  in  its  hands.  It  has  embraced, 
and  obstinately  followed,  an  odious  system,  with  a  view  of 
maintaining  itself  out  of  the  constitutional  line,  into  which  it 
would  not  re-enter  again. 

"  It  has  without  shame  applied  the  name  of  anarchists  to 
all  the  republicans.  Braving  all  the  counsels  of  the  legisla- 
tive body,  it  has  always  marched  without  looking  behind  it 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  1J9 

— complaisance,  flattery,  and  intrigue,  have  sustained  it  in 
its  march.     Where  ought  it  to  have  terminated  ? 

"  After  ihe  disorganization  of  the  armies,  nothing  could 
have  been  more  fatal  than  the  deposing  of  the  republicans. 
That  plan  prepared  with  sang  froid,  and  despotically  exe- 
cuted, produces  discouragement;  the  friends  of  liberty, 
treated  without  discretion,  looked  upon  with  distrust,  quit 
everywhere  the  reins  of  the  administration  :  revolutionary 
indifference  is  described  and  sought  after  as  ihe  first  of  civic 
virtues,  and  men  who  were  too  much  gifted  with  that  virtue, 
replace  in  all  our  municipalities  the  ciiosen  of  the  people. 

"  The  abasement  of  the  legislative  body  itst-lf  would  have 
been  accomplished  a  long  time  since  by  the  official  papers, 
if  it  had  been  as  easy  to  pervert  opinion  as  to  abuse  the  laws. 
The  usurpation  of  the  directory  upon  the  independence  of 
the  popular  elections,  is  still  more  culpable  than  the  audacity 
of  the  privileged  press.  The  right  of  electing  is  the  only  one 
which  the  sovereign  people  reserved  in  its  days  of  Comitia : 
to  depose  a  citizen,  because  he  does  noi  exercise  this  su- 
preme right  to  the  pleasure  of  the  superior  authority,  is  an 
absolute  sacrilege. 

"  After  having  abjured  the  yoke  of  a  king/after  having 
broken  so  many  sceptres,  could  the  citizens  and  the  war- 
riors patiently  support  the  domination  of  all  the  subaltern 
agents,  who  would  make  a  sport  of  the  civil  liberty  of  indi- 
viduals as  they  would  with  the  political  liberty  of  nations  T 
Those  petty  tyrants  treated  our  allies  like  their  slaves.  Italy, 
Helvetia,  were  become  their  domains.  At  Milan,  they  held 
beds  of  justice.  Every  day  brought  a  revolution  where  the 
rights  acquired  were  sacrificed  to  the  most  capricious  aris- 
tocracy. They  changed  thus  into  regrets  and  plots  the  af- 
fection and  gratitude  of  the  people  who  were  enfranchised 
by  our  arms.  It  was  known  that  some  of  those  simple  men, 
who  were  our  elders  in  liberty,  desired  slavery  even  in  pref- 
erence. Unworthy  chains  have  charged  the  hands  of  Cham- 
pionnet.  In  short,  the  fruits  of  our  victories  were  moment- 
arily lost  for  the  republic.  The  cries  of  the  victims  immo- 
lated by  Suwarrow  upon  our  frontiers,  those  of  the  good 
citizens  oppressed  in  the  interior,  must  they  always  find  us 
insensible  *?  No,  the  misfortunes  of  the  oppressed  shall  be 
repaired,  the  shades  of  the  victims  avenged. 

"A  new  career  opens  before  you  ; — your  permanence  will 
bring  a  more  prosperous  day  ;  the  directory  of  the  republic 
regenerate  a  more  brilliant  destiny;  the  legislative  body,  in 
regaining  the  first  place  in  the  state,  will  second,  with  all  its 
power,  the  well-directed  efforts  of  the  public  administration; 
an  unalterable  concord  will  assure  us  new  triumphs.  The 
hands  of  those  who  are  accustomed  to  conquer,  will  seize 
the  sword  of  command,  and  the  republican  forces  will  re- 
cover the  strength  it  ought  never  to  have  lost. 


120  MEMOIRS    OF 

*'  We  are  waiting  for  a  message  from  the  directory,  which 
is  fortunately  renewed;  it  will  be,  without  doubt,  conform- 
able to  the  truth  and  the  wishes  of  all  good  citizens.  Let 
all  uneasiness  cease  from  to-day;  let  us  deliver  ourselves 
up  with  confidence  to  those  great,  ardent,  and  generous  id^as 
which  caused  our  hearts  to  beat  in  the  first  days  of  the  rev- 
olution. Ifroyalism  has  conceived  some  hopes,  they  will 
be  deceptive — they  will  be  for  ever  lost,  at  the  aspect  of  our 
concord  and  energy.  The  changes  which  you  have  accom- 
plished are  not  very  striking,  but  they  will  possess  their 
place  in  history,  and  their  influence  in  Europe  :  they  have 
not  cost  the  shedding  of  blood — they  have  not  caused  tears 
to  flow.  The  change  of  opinion  has  produced  them  without 
a  struggle.  They  will  give  strength  to  our  social  compact, 
and  will  find  their  consecration  in  the  unanimous  consent  of 
all  the  friends  of  the  republic.  Your  commission  advises  to 
wait  in  permanence  the  message  of  the  new  directory." 

That  proposition  was  decreed,  as  well  as  the  impression 
of  the  speech,  in  twelve  copies.  The  Deputy  Arena  desired 
that  it  might  be  sent  into  all  the  departments  and  to  the 
armies  :  but  T  immediately  announced  to  the  council  that  my 
report  was  only  a  preparatory  work,  and  that  the  commission 
of  eleven  occupied  itself  with  an  address  to  the  French 
people,  which  would  not  be  long  before  it  would  be  submit- 
ted to  them. 

The  first  days  of  Messidor  passed  without  the  directory 
sending  the  message  that  we  expected.  Sieyes  and  his  two 
new  colleagues  were  scarcely  installed.  Gohier  had  only 
been  a  few  days.  Barras  in  those  first  days  left  us  to  act, 
and  thought  only  of  maintaining  himself  in  place.  A  delay 
which  found  its  excuse  under  the  circumstances,  prolonged 
the  permanence  of  the  councils  and  the  duration  of  the  com- 
mission of  eleven.  The  discontented,  then,  directed  all 
their  eflbrts  against  the  commission ;  they  pretended  to  be 
uneasy  at  the  extraordinary  power  which  was  confided  to 
us  ;  they  compared  us  to  the  famous  committee  of  public 
safety.  As  nothing  could  be  more  false  than  those  insinua- 
tions, Frangois  de  Nantes  was  charged  to  submit  to  the  coun- 
cil several  measures  against  the  divisions  of  the  electoral  as- 
semblies, and  he  announcer!  that  in  the  week  the  commis- 
sion would  propose  a  project  of  law  and  a  project  of  address, 
and  that  it  •\vould  itself  demand  its  dissolution  and  the  end 
of  the  permanence.  Tiie  General  Jourdan  made  a  report 
upon  the  recruiting  of  the  armies.  Filled  with  confidence 
in  the  wisdom  of  Sieyes,  we  were  more  desirous  than  our 
adversaries  to  see  our  mission  terminated.  The  measures 
proposed  by  Fran§ois  de  Nantes  and  Jourdan  being  threatened 
with  adjournment,  I  insisted,  in  the  following  terms,  (sitting 
of  the  7th  of  Messidor,)  for  their  prompt  discussion  : — 

"  There  is  not  one  among  us  but  has  known  the  crisici  cf 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  121 

the  revolution,  and  who  does  not  know  how  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  an  impulse,  and  judge  how  far  it  may  be  useful, 
and  where  it  might  begin  to  be  dnngerous.  'I'he  occasion 
of  doing  good,  once  lost,  may  never  return.  There  are,  in 
the  city  as  in  the  field  of  battle,  precious  nionionts  which  it 
is  not  easy  to  find  again.  A  retard  is  sometimes  irreparable. 
One  single  will  animates  at  this  moment  all  t!ic  friends  of  the 
republic.  Let  us  beware  of  weakening  their  energy  by  an 
unseasonable  moderation.  If  you  go  back  to  find  mental 
laws  ;  if  you  want  to  combine  all  the  means  of  execution  be- 
fore you  promulgate  those  salutary  principles  which  we 
have  presented,  you  alienate,  perhaps,  the  public  confidence, 
without  which  you  can  do  nothing. 

"I  do  not  accuse  the  intentions  of  any  one  ;  but  what  is 
there  to  fear  from  the  adoption  of  the  measures  proposed? 
Will  the  declaration  be  dangerous  which  informs  our  arenerals 
and  our  soldiers  that  you  are  about  to  enfranchise  them  from 
a  tyranny  even  more  shameful  than  that  of  the  ancient 
regime  1  Will  it  be  dangerous  to  inform  the  republicans  who 
are  peisecuted,  tiiat  in  future  they  may  unite  and  oppose 
their  imposing  masses  to  the  scattered  bands  of  their  assas- 
sins, of  those  brigands,  the  bleeding  leprosy  of  the  depart- 
ments of  the  East  and  the  South  ?  Will  it  be  dangerous  to 
suspend  the  erasing  of  those  emigT-ants  who  enter  under  false 
certificates,  obtained  and  bought  ia  those  municipalities 
where  the  spirit  of  the  counter  revolution  ferments  in  secret. 

"  What  danger  do  you  find  after  all — that  it  is  no  longer 
the  members  of  the  executive  power,  but  a  solemn  law, 
which  bestows  arms  as  national  recompenses  l 

*'  We  have  just  had  a  proof  that  opinion  raises  and  de- 
stroys at  her  will  all  powers.  vSeize  then,  representatives 
of  the  people,  upon  that  all-powerful  lever,  and  direct  it  to- 
wards the  public  good.  If  the  laws  which  we  present  to 
you  are  still  retarded  for  some  days,  the  effects  of  the  salu- 
tary action  that  the  state  has  just  experienced  may  escaoe 
you.  I  demand  to  move  the  previous  question  upon  all  tne 
references,  and  the  discussion  instantly  of  the  projects  of  the 
commission." 

The  council  adopted  my  proposition  unanimously.  The 
projects  were  converted  into  laws.  They  confirmed  even 
an  article  of  the  law  of  the  19th  Fructidor,  which  gave  to 
the  executive  power  the  right  of  transporting  the  refractory 

priests Transport  without  judgment !     They  thought 

they  could  not  yet  deprive  the  directory  of  that  dictature 
without  compromising  the  public  safety.  I  opposed  this 
revolutionary  measure  extending  against  all  the  priests.  It 
was  applied  only  to  the  refractory  priests. 

Two  days  afterward  we  at  length  received  a  message 
from  the  new  directory.  I  opposed  against  its  being  com- 
municated to  us  in  a  secret  committee.     The  reading  of  it 

L 


122  MEMOIRS    OF 

in  public  produced  an  excellent  effect;  it  was  the  recapitu- 
lation of  the  faults  of  the  fallen  power  without  reserve,  and 
the  inevitable  demand  of  men  and  money- (9) 

Jourdan,  soob  after  the  reading  of  the  message,  proposed 
to  put  in  activity  all  classes  of  conscripts,  and  to  raise  a  loan 
of  a  hundred  millions  for  the  expenses  of  the  war.  (10) 

Fran9ois  de  Nantes  presented  the  project  of  an  address  to 
the  French. (IL)  All  was  unanimously  approved  of.  The 
commission  of  eleven  was  declared  dissolved.  During  the 
sitting  the  council  of  ancients  confirmed  all  our  resolutions  ; 
the  permanence  of  the  legislative  body  was  terminated — 
and  all  re-entered  into  constitutional  order. 

Such  was  the  revolution  of  the  30th  Praireal ;  it  had  some 
resemblance  with  that  of  1830.  Both  of  them  had  the  same 
result  of  violently  changing  the  executive  power.  Both  one 
and  the  other  were  accomplished  by  the  legislative  body. 
Neither  one  nor  the  other  v^as  submitted  to  the  universal 
voting;  they  had,  nevertheless,  the  general  consent.  The 
resignatio.is  were  given  by  the  directors  equally  as  freely  as 
those  of  Charles  Dix  and  the  Duke  d'Argouleme.  In  short, 
the  resignation  of  the  directory,  as  well  as  that  of  the  elder 
branch  of  the  Bourbons,  was  incomplete.  One  of  the  five 
directors  did  not  renounce,  and  one  of  the  princes  of  the 
elder  branch  did  not  renounce,  and  could  noL,  because  he 
was  a  minor.  But  these  resemblances  are  accompanied  by 
difltrt  jjces  far  more  remarkable,  v.hich  we  will  examine  here- 
after by  comparing  the  revolution  of  Brnmaire  with  all  those 
which  we  have  had  precede  and  succeed  it  during  half  a  cen- 
tury. 

What  are  we  to  conclude,  in  the  mean  time,  from  those 
resemblances  that  we  have  remarked  1 

1st.  The  30th  Praireal  and  the  30ih  of  July  have  produced 
two  governments  without  a  positive  right,  because  they  were 
not  confirmed  by  the  free  and  universal  voting  of  the  nation, 
for  which  no  right  whatever  can  make  up  the  deficiency  en- 
tirely. 

2d.  The  directory  elected  on  the  30th  of  Praireal,  not  hav- 
ing known  how  to  preserve  its  power  of  de  facto,  and  not 
having  the  right,  its  fail  upon  the  18th  Brumaire  was  legiti- 
mate, even  before  three  millions  of  votes  had  approved  of  it. 

3d.  His  majesty  the  King  of  the  French  can  and  ought  to 
terminate  the  revolution  of  July,  by  the  free  and  universal 
vote  of  the  nation.  He  can,  for  he  reigns  in  peace  and  with 
undisputed  approbation.  He  ought,  for  that  popular  conse- 
cration would  fortify  his  throne.  It  would  be  as  useful  to 
his  family  as  to  France.  It  would  cleanse  the  great  nation 
from  the  aflfront  of  not  having  been  consulted  upon  the 
change  of  her  dynasty ;  for  if,  since  1830,  and  notwithstand- 
ing the  excessive  rigours,  the  present  government  has  merited 
the  praises  of  every  impartial  man,  for  having  known  how 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  123 

to  preserve  internal  and  external  pe?ce,  it  is  not  the  ]e*s 
evident  to  every  eye,  that  at  this  moment  the  French  throne 
is  not  yet  seated,  but  between  the  quasi  legitimacy  of  divine 
right,  and  the  quasi  legitimacy  of  the  popular  right.  Its 
power  has  not  been  consecrated,  either  by  the  elevation 
upon  the  shield,  which  was  the  universal  suffrage  of  the  an- 
cient Francs — or  by  the  hereditary  coronation,  th-e  legiti- 
macy of  past  times — or  by  the  national  vote,  the  legitimacy 
of  new  times. 

If  immediately  after  the  30th  of  July  they  receded  before 
a  universal  voting — that  is  explained  by  reasons  that  our 
cotemporaries  know,  and  which  are  useless  to  mention. 
But  at  this  time,  after  five  years  of  exterior  peace  and  mate- 
rial amelioration,  now  that  the  factions  are  vanquished  or 
rendered  powerless,  what  is  there  to  fear  in  legitimating? 
Is  France  descended  so  low  that  they  may  always  dispense 
with  her  vote  ?  .  If  the  new  government  of  our  fine  country 
would  at  length  submit  itself  to  the  popular  voting,  it  would, 
confirm  and  strengthen  itself;  and  all  would  then  surround 
with  conviction  the  elect  of  the  people.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
he  refuses  to  render  homage  to  that  sovereign  whom  in  our 

age  it  is  vain  to  disown I  wish  to  deceive  myself — 

but  the  abyss  of  a  revolution  is  inevitably  about  to  open 
before  us  ;  and  the  counsellors  of  the  crown,  who  do  not  en- 
deavour to  engage  it  to  bend  before  that  popular  sovereignty, 
assume  upon  their  own  heads  all  the  responsibility  of  the 
struggles  which  threaten  every  government  that  is  ill  seated. 
To  persist  in  not  consulting  France,  would  be  showing  that 
they  do  not  regard  the  30th  of  July  as  a  revolution,  but  as  a 
personal  catastrophe.  p]ither  the  three  days  are  really  glo- 
rious, because  they  overturned  the  government  of  divine 
right,  to  raise  in  its  place  a  government  of  popular  right ; 
because  for  a  charter  granted  by  the  king,  they  have  substi- 
tuted a  charter  consented  to  by  the  king,  and  proposed  by 
the  legislative  chambers.  The  ordinances  were  only  the 
occasion  of  that  revolution  of  principles  ;  and  to  make  it 
complete,  it  should  be  sanctioned  by  the  sovereign  people, 
whose  power  it  acknowledged  in  raising  the  banner  of  1789, 
and  1791,  of  the  republic,  of  the  consulate,  and  the  empire. 

In  expressing  myself  thus,  without  ?ny  reserve,  in  saying 
all  1  think  upon  the  actual  constitution  of  my  beloved  coun- 
try, they  will  perhaps  ask  me  how,  with  that  decided  opinion, 
I  insist  without  ceasing  upon  my  re-entry  into  France ; — 
how  I  can  demand  to  live  under  the  charter  which  created  the 
throne  of  the  King  of  the  French  ?  .  .  .  My  answer  will  be 
as  frank  as  my  faith  in  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  uni- 
versal voting  is  decided  and  profound.  I  desire  to  re-enter 
France  as  a  citizen  subject  to  the  actual  laws  of  my  country, 
because  those  laws,  such  as  they  have  been  made  by  the 
legislative  assemblies,  although  not  sanctified  by  the  popular 


124  MEMOIRS    OF 

baptism,  offer,  nevertheless,  a  social  state,  which,  without 
being  perfect,  appears  to  me  to  be  preferable  to  many  others, 
and  above  all,  preferable  to  exile;  because  the  present  royal 
government,  created  and  sustained  by  the  unanimous  suf- 
frages of  several  legislative  chambers,  possesses  in  conse- 
quence the  votes  of  the  two  hundred  thousand  electors,  who 
have  at  this  moment  in  France  the  legal  privilege  of  political 
right ;  because  that  state  of  things,  which  is  neither  the  best 
nor  the  worst,  if  agreeable  to  the  French  people,  (as  is  de- 
monstrated by  the  numerous  adhesions  and  the  tacit  consent 
of  all,)  it  does  not  belong  to  a  simple  citizen  to  refuse  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  which  his  country  approves  of,  or  finds 
suitable.  But  that  obedience  does  not  carry  with  it  the  con- 
viction that  those  laws  are  invested  with  popular  legitimacy. 
It  does  not  oblige  one  to  believe  that  the  vote  of  the  deputies 
of  two  hundred  thousand  electors,  is  equal  to  the  vote  of 
several  millions  of  citizens.  It  does  not  in  the  least  prevent 
them  from  desiring  that  the  universal  suffrage  of  which  those 
laws  are  deficient  should  be  given  to  them.  Let  them  no 
longer  delay  that  national  sanction ;  it  would,  on  the  contrary, 
be  showing  that  they  sincerely  desire  the  confirmation  and 
the  amelioration  of  those  laws  of  the  country,  beneath  whose 
aegis  they  desire  at  least  to  take  shelter,  and  certainly  a  ra- 
tional faith,  ardent  and  exclusive  in  the  popular  sovereignty 
formed  by  the  suffrage  of  all,  maybe  expressed  without  temer- 
ity by  hiiu,  who,  excluded  from  the  empire  by  that  same 
universal  suffrage,  acknowledged  and  revered  in  former  days 
that  supreme  power  which  threw  him  out  of  his  family,  as  he 
acknowledges  it  at  this  moment,  while  he  regrets  that  the 
sacred  dogma  is  still  wanting  to  the  government  of  his 
country. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  125 


15th  Messidor,  Isi  Fructidnr,  year  7.     From  the  4th  of  July  to 

the  I8th  of  August,  1799. 

Opposition  against  the  new  Directory — Decree  of  Accusation  of  the  An- 
cient Directors  rejected — My  speech  against  the  Jacobin  reaction — At- 
tacks of  the  Jacobin  Press  against  Sieyes  and  myself— Club  of  the 
Manege  ;  its  expulsion  from  that  place — Censure  of  the  Newspapers 
suppressed — Excesses  of  the  Newspapers,  Pamphlets,  Placards,  &c. — 
Disorders  caused  by  the  Clubs — Revolutionary  Law  of  the  Hostages — 
Forced  Loan — Speech  of  Sieyes  against  the  Jacobins — I  defend  the 
General  Lefebvre — Answers  to  M.  Thiers. 

I.     THE    POWERS. 

The  Turkish  Russian  fleet  attacked  again  the  port  of  An- 
cona ;  but,  repulsed  from  the  shore,  it  continued  without  a 
rival  to  dominate  the  Adriatic. 

The  victories  of  the  Austrian  Russians  did  not  cease  in 
Italy.  Masters  of  Turin,  they  besieged  the  citadel.  The 
Piedmontese  artillery,  soldiers  whom  they  had  enrolled 
with  our  troops,  hastened  by  their  insubordination  the  loss 
of  that  strong  place.  Suwarrow  had,  in  the  meantime, 
advanced  as  far  as  the  Trebbia.  After  three  days  of  the 
most  obstinate  and  bloody  battles,  he  forced  our  columns  to 
retire  into  Tuscany,  where  he  was  not  long  before  he  fol- 
lowed them.  He  took  possession  of  Tuscany.  Mantua 
itself  capitulated.  Our  only  compensation  for  so  many 
reverses  was  the  junction  of  the  armies  of  Macdonald  and 
Moreau,  which,  re-enforced,  though  too  slowly,  by  some 
thousands  of  conscripts,  possessed  in  the  Genoese  states  a 
good  defensive  line. 

A  new  Russian  army,  in  the  pay  of  England,  arrived  at 
Prague.  That  increase  of  force  might  have  proved  fatal  to 
us,  if  the  first  misintelligence  between  Austria  and  Suwar- 
row had  not  broken  out,  and  if  Massena  had  not  opposed* to 
all  those  attacks  an  impregnable  barrier. 

II.    THE    ALLIED   REPUBLICS. 

Our  partisans  diminished  every  day  in  Helvetia.  En- 
couraged by  the  success  of  the  co-allies,  the  faction,  dis- 
contented with  the  reforms  which  we  had  imposed,  occupied 
itself  with  their  revision. 

The  numerous  friends  of  the  house  of  Orange  no  longer 
dissimulated  their  hopes.  Troubles  broke  out  in  several 
parts  of  the  Batavian  republic.  The  government  of  that 
republic  placed  all  its  troops  under  the  command  of  a 
French  general ;  and  Brune  united  thus  all  the  means  of  de- 

L  2 


126  MEMOIRS    OP 

fence.  That  unity  of  direction  was  still  more  necessary,  as 
the  grand  expedition,  prepared  upon  the  British  coasts,  ap- 
peared to  threaten  Holland. 

We  had  still  at  Rome  and  Naples  some  fortresses.  The 
republicans  of  Naples  struggled  for  some  days ;  but  soon 
the  terrible  Cardinal  Ruffo,  the  blood-stained  precursor 
of  an  irritated  master,  came  to  exercise  his  fury  in  the 
beauteous  Parthenope,  at  the  head  of  his  bands  of  Calabrese 
brigands.  Long  will  the  memory  be  preserved  of  the  revo- 
lutionary vengeances  of  the  court  of  Sicily.  The  king  re- 
turned in  triumph  in  the  English  fleet,  and  re-entered  his 
capital  in  the  midst  of  executions. 

III.    THE    ARMIES. 

The  junction  of  our  two  armies  of  Italy  was  scarcely 
completed,  when  Joubert  arrived  to  command  them.  Cham- 
pionnet  placed  himself  upon  the  Alps  at  the  head  of  a  third 
army.  Moreau  returned  to  the  accustomed  theatre  of  his 
victories.  Massena  left  him  the  army  of  the  Danube,  and 
consecrated  himself  entirely  to  the  army  of  Helvetia.  The 
conscripts  of  whom  we  had  decreed  the  raising,  repaired 
from  every  part  of  the  frontiers ;  they  replaced  also,  as 
rapidly  as  they  could,  the  materials  which  the  preceding 
administration  had,  without  shame,  caused  to  be  sold  at  the 
most  scandalously  low  prices  ;  but  that  which  is  dissipated  in 
a  moment  cannot,  unfortunately,  be  replaced  so  quickly. 

The  winds  of  Egypt  for  several  months  past  had  brought 
us  only  the  sounds  of  victory ;  but,  as  if  every  thing  at  the 
same  time  conspired  against  us,  the  news  from  Egypt 
brought  us  the  account  of  the  raising  of  the  siege  of  St. 
Jean  d'Acre.  Never  was  France  more  in  need  of  union 
and  firmness — never  did  a  new  government  take  reins  in 
the  midst  of  so  many  perils. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

We  had  made  the  revolution  of  the  30th  Praireal  to  re- 
establish the  union  between  the  powers,  so  necessary  in 
great  dangers.  In  rejecting  three  directors  before  the  time 
prescribed  by  the  law,  we  hoped  to  gather  the  fruit  of  that 
new  violation  of  constitutional  order;  yet  scarcely,  how- 
ever, had  some  weeks  elapsed  but  v/e  found  ourselves  in 
the  same  confusion.  We  had  chosen  two  directors,  Gohier 
and  Moulins,  private  men  without  reproach,  but  public  men 
without  talent,  and,  what  was  worse  than  all,  who  had  no 
desire  to  second  Sieyes,  in  whom  we  had  placed  our  hopes 
of  a  better  government.  They  partook,  on  the  contrary,  of 
the  exaggerated  opinion.  Barras  thus  found  himself  be- 
tween two  factions  equal  in  number  and  his  adhesion  de- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  127 

cided  the  majority.  Sieves  was  obliged  to  ally  himself  with 
him  in  spite  of  his  repugnance.  He  consented  to  name 
minister  of  the  police  one  of  the  creatures  of  Barras,  the 
famous  Fouche  de  Nantes.  Fortunately  that  ancient  con- 
ventional, who  well  knew  the  Jacobins,  thought  it  useful  to 
bis  interest  at  that  moment  to  combat  them.  He  decided 
Barras  to  unite  with  Sieyes  and  Roger  Duces ;  but  that  ma- 
jority, depending  upon  a  man  like  Barras,  did  not  prevent 
the  directory  from  being  equally  as  weak  as  it  was  before  the 
last  crisis.  The  friends  of  the  fallen  government  drew 
towards  Barras,  who  was  the  last  wreck  of  it.  The  two 
oppositions,  as  usual,  united  to  overturn  it,  and  it  was 
disunited  the  day  after  the  combat.  The  constitutionals 
rallied  round  Sieyes,  while  the  Jacobins,  from  the  danger 
of  the  state,  had  returned  to  their  customary  exaltation,  and 
no  longer  saw  the  welfare  of  the  country  in  the  executive 
power  so  unfortunately  regenerated.  They  saw  it  only  in 
revolutionary  expedients,  and  in  the  concentration  of  all  the 
pohtical  action  in  the  bosom  of  the  legislative  body.  They 
had  for  two  of  their  directors  the  minister  of  war,  Berna- 
-dotte,  and  the  General  Marbot,  commandant  of  Paris.  If  we 
add  to  those  two  names  those  of  Juurdan,  Augereau,  and 
Lamarque,  members  of  our  council,  the  Jacobins  could 
reckon  in  their  ranks  five  of  the  best  generals  in  the  re- 
public. 

That  reunion  of  great  military  renown  balanced  in 
that  party  the  inferiority  of  the  number.  Sieyes  felt  that 
it  was  necessary  to  separate,  as  much  as  possible,  that 
formidable  reunion ;  and  they  resolved,  therefore,  to  de- 
prive Bernadotte,  the  minister  of  war,  of  his  place.  They 
began  by  depriving  Marbot  of  the  command  of  Paris,  and 
the  brave  General  Lefebvre,  incapable  of  all'intrigue,  was 
his  successor.  The  new  aspect  of  the  council  was  not  long 
in  manifesting  itself  clearly ;  they  began  by  attacking  the 
ancient  directors  and  the  ex-minister  Scherer.  They  de- 
manded for  them  to  be  placed  in  accusation ;  but  the  ad- 
dresses were  not  wanting ;  they  poured  in  from  all  quarters. 
In  what  age,  and  in  what  country,  has  the  conqueror  been 
wanting  in  flatterers,  and  the  vanquished  in  outrages  ?  The 
accusations  increased  in  violence  one  after  the  other. 
Rewbell,  who,  for  a  year  past,  had  sat  with  the  ancients — 
Treilhard,  whom  we  had  expelled  by  the  chicane  of  an  at- 
torney— Merlin  and  La  Reveillere,  whose  abdication  had 
been  celebrated  as  a  meritorious  sacrifice,  for  which  they 
had  promised  to  recompense  them,  were  all  four  of  them 
equally  pursued.  Rewbell  defended  himself  at  the  council 
of  ancients  with  a  noble  firmness  ;  this  council,  where  the 
Jacobin  party  scarcely  existed,  listened  to  Rewbell  with  an 
encouraging  calmness.  But  among  us  the  attacks  were 
sharper ;  they  wanted,  above  all,  to  obtain  a  special  com- 


128  MEMOIRS    OP 

mission  to  establish  in  the  council  a  centre  of  reaction 
against  the  accused.  We  repulsed  that  attempt,  and  had 
all  the  denunciations  sent  back  to  the  government ;  but  it  is 
so  easy  to  persuade  a  numerous  assembly  to  adopt  meas- 
ures which  flatter  its  omnipotence,  that  a  few  days  after 
they  named  a  commission  of  five  members,  to  whom  they 
sent  the  account  of  the  accusations. 

Encouraged  by  this  success  against  the  fallen  power,  the 
Jacobins  tried  an  attack  against  the  actual  power.  The 
deputy  Briot  complained  of  the  retard  of  the  informations 
that  were  demanded  of  the  directory.—"  We  expect,"  said 
they,  "  the  lease  of  the  salt-springs  of  the  East :  it  requires 
but  a  quarter  of  an  hour  to  send  it  us,  and  we  cannot  obtain 
it.  Other  messages  have  also  remained  without  an  answer. 
I  propose  to  name  a  commission  to  seek  after  all  the  mes- 
sages addressed  to  no  purpose  to  the  executive  power,  and 
those  which  it  may  be  necessary  still  to  address  to  it.  You 
shudder  at  the  recital  of  the  crimes  committed  in  Italy. 
You  will  learn  that,  although  you  pay  the  army  entirely, 
in  the  meantime  the  alhed  republics  pay  the  greater  part 
of  that  army." 

All  this  was  but  too  true ;  but  that  was  not  a  reason  to 
establish  in  the  bosom  of  the  council  a  committee  of  inqui- 
ry, and  to  take  from  the  directory  the  functions  which  be- 
longed to  it,  to  give  it  in  charge  to  a  committee ;  it  was 
acting  precisely  as  if  we  had  not  changed  the  government. 
Notwithstanding  all,  however,  the  commission  was  named. 
Some  days  after  it  made  a  report,  in  which  it  specified  pre- 
cisely the  chief  points  of  accusation  of  the  ancient  direc- 
tors, and  proposed  to  discuss  it  in  a  secret  committee  :  that 
discussion  continued  during  several  sittings.  The  second 
chief  accusation  w^as  written  down  as  follows  : — 

"  For  having  transported  to  the  deserts  of  Arabia  forty 
thousand  of  the  choicest  men  of  our  armies,  the  General 
Bonaparte,  and  with  him  the  flower  of  our  literati,  of  our 
men  of  letters,  and  our  artists. "(12) 

The  act  of  accusation  fell  evidently  upon  Barras,  as  well 
as  upon  his  ancient  colleagues,  and  it  tended  also  to  disor- 
ganize the  regenerated  directory  of  which  Barras  had  de- 
termined the  majority  in  favour  of  Sieyes.  The  friends  of 
Sieyes  reunited  with  the  partisans  of  the  fallen  govern- 
ment ;  and  after  three  days  of  a  secret  committee,  we  de- 
clared that  there  was  no  reason  for  accusation.  In  deplo- 
ring the  errors  of  the  directors,  they  gave  them  every 
credit  for  their  good  intentions,  the  difficulty  of  the  circum- 
stances, and,  above  all,  the  danger  of  a  reaction. 

That  victory  had  been  sufficiently  disputed  to  give  uneasi- 
ness to  Sieyes,  Barras,  and  Roger  Ducos,  and  they  declared 
that  those  daily  interpellations  deprived  them  of  the  public 
confidence,  and  that  they  did  not  think  it  possible  to  govern, 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  129 

if  the  majority  of  the  council  of  five  hundred  did  not  pro- 
nounce more  in  their  favour.  They  requested  personally 
my  concurrence,  and  1  seized  the  occasion  of  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  14th  of  July,  which  they  celebrated  by  a  civic 
fete  in  the  bosom  of  each  council,  to  declare  more  openly 
than  1  had  done,  by  my  silent  vote  against  the  accusation 
of  the  ex-directors.  After  the  studied  speech  of  the  presi- 
dent, I  expressed  myself  as  follows  : — 

"  Representatives  of  the  people, — I  seize  with  avidity  this 
solemn  occasion,  when  we  celebrate  the  taking  of  the 
Bastile,  to  submit  to  you  some  patriotic  thoughts.  The  30th 
Praireal,  you  reconstituted  the  government  of  the  republic, 
and  promised  to  the  French  people  that  they  should  enjoy 
your  work,  and  behold  a  better  future.  Such  is  the  sense 
of  all  your  declarations.  You  will,  without  doubt,  fulfil 
your  promises  ;  and  to  fulfil  them  we  must  follow  the  im- 
pulse of  our  consciences,  and  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  mis- 
led by  foreign  impressions.  To  keep  our  oaths,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  signalize  and  repulse  the  first  attempts  made 
out  of  the  constitutional  line  where  we  have  desired  to  re- 
enter." 

(A  great  number  of  voices  :  "  Yes — yes  !") 

"  If  there  existed  projects  to  carry  us  away  out  of  the 
directorial  system,  we  would  repress  them.  The  friends  of 
royalty  would  also  mislead  us,  that  they  might  see  the  great 
republic  perish  in  the  convulsions  of  civil  war  and  of  for- 
eign war;  but  we  and  those  thirty  millions  of  Frenchmen 
whom  we  represent,  we  will  not  have  any  more  convul- 
sions, any  more  changes  of  system,  no  more  scaffolds,  above 
all.  .  .  .  We  will  not  suflTer,  in  short,  the  horrible  regime  of 
'93  to  be  substituted  for  the  constitutional  regime." 

The  whole  of  the  assembly,  "  No,  no,  never!" 

"  The  30th  Praireal  you  enfranchised  the  constitution 
from  the  chains  which  rendered  it  impotent ;  but  often  the 
consequences  of  a  political  day  are  very  diflferent  from  those 
that  have  been  expected,  announced,  and  desired.  The 
9th  Thermidor,  made  against  the  tyranny  of  Robespierre, 
brought  with  it  the  royalist  reaction.  The  18th  Fructidor, 
made  against  royalism,  brought  with  it  the  22d  Floreal.  .  .  . 
Why  had  such  a  noble  cause  such  deplorable  effects  ? 

"  Why }  Our  sad  history  teaches  us.  It  is,  that  behind 
those  generous  men  who  made  the  9th  Thermidor  and  the 
18tli  Fructidor,  there  pressed  a  crowd  of  party  men,  coura- 
geous after  the  combat,  and  more  exalted  to-day,  than  they 
were  yesterday  pusillanimous.  Those  men  deprived  the 
conquerors  of  their  populaiity  ;  precipitated  themselves  into 
every  evil ;  flattering  without  shame  the  predominant  opin- 
ion, they  appropriated  to  themselves  the  fruits  of  the  im- 
mortal days. 

"  It  has  often  been  seen  that  those  who  flatter  tyrants, 


130  MEMOIRS    OF 

flatter  afterward  the  multitude.  To  cause  their  ancient 
baseness  to  be  forgotten,  they  commit  a  fresh  baseness.  .  . 
Representatives  of  the  people,  if  your  attitude  had  only  been 
undecided,  the  movement  of  Praireal  would  have  finished, 
perhaps,  like  those  which  preceded  it.  Fortunately,  experi- 
ence has  instructed  all  of  us.  As  soon  as  the  revolutionary 
torrent  growls  in  the  distance,  we  know  that  we  must  form 
a  dike.  ...  if  we  delay,  it  is  too  late.  .  .  .  And  the  torrent 
overturns  the  workmen  upon  the  bleeding  ruins  of  their 
work,  begun  too  late. 

"  But  let  the  good  citizens  assure  themselves  we  will  not 
turn  aside  from  that  constitution,  our  sole  guarantee.  .  .  . 
That  directorial  charter,  approved  by  the  sovereign  people, 
shall  not  be  placed  there,  in  the  midst  of  you,  upon  that  pil- 
lar, as  upon  a  block  where  they  immolate  the  victims.  (13) 
No,  it  shall  not  be  immolated.  V/e  will  defend  it  against  all 
factions.  I  declare  it  by  all  your  oaths,  and,  above  all,  from 
that  which  springs  from  your  hearts  at  this  moment.  The 
directory  regenerated  is  surrounded  with  all  the  strength  of 
the  law.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  cease  to  surround  it  with  all  the 
strength  of  opinion;  and,  reunited  by  that  sacred  tie,  we 
shall  save  the  republic  from  the  abyss  into  which  they 
have  plunged  it. 

"  In  the  first  days  of  its  administration,  the  executive 
power  found  every  thing  in  the  most  complete  ruin  :  it  still 
works  upon  the  wreck.  Its  march  appears  too  slow  in  the 
eyes  of  the  impatient  friends  of  the  country.  .  .  .  And  I  also 
partake  of  their  impatience,  and  I  conclude  that,  the  sooner 
to  satisfy  it,  we  must  not  be  divided.  The  more  we  suffer 
to  be  discovered  the  necessity  of  a  change  in  the  system, 
and  the  more  we  weaken  the  government,  her  march  will 
be  so  much  the  less  vigorous  and  the  less  rapid. 

"  Besides,  do  not  forget,  representatives  of  the  people, 
that  if  the  equilibrium  of  the  powers,  without  which  there 
is  no  durable  constitution,  exacts  that  the  government 
should  not  weigh  upon  the  legislative  body  as  before  the 
30th  Praireal,  it  exacts,  also,  that  the  legislative  body  should 
not  weigh  upon  the  government,  without  which  France 
would  only  have  but  changed  her  tyrants.  The  effect  of 
your  good  intentions  would  be  lost,  and  the  abasement  of 
the  directory  encourage  the  factions. 

"  To  obtain  that  equilibrium,  therefore,  we  must  not  ex- 
act imperiously  the  dismission  of  such  or  such  agent,  be- 
cause he  had  been  accused  by  such  or  such  a  paper.  In 
short,  that  the  directors  will  not  condemn  without  hearing 
the  justification  of  the  accused,  it  must  not  be  thought  tha* 
they  act  like  their  predecessors  ;  for  they  condemned  at  that 
time  the  people  and  the  individuals  without  listening  to  their 
defence.  Because  we  have  been  for  a  long  time  oppressed 
by  the  executive  power,  we  must  in  our  turn  become  oppres- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  131 

sors  ;  for  the  constitutional  equilibrium  would  gain  nothing 
by  that  change  of  parts.  If  a  word  said  at  tiiat  tribunal 
became  an  order  for  the  goA'ernment  and  a  sentence  for  the 
accused,  liberty  would  not  any  longer  be   scarcely  but  a 

chimera,  and  the  directory  a  manikin It  would  in 

fact  be  exacting  of  our  first  magistrates  to  hold  themselves 
their  necks  to  the  bowstring  of  an  absolute  master,  accord- 
ing to  an  Asiatic  custom,  but  very  little  republican. 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,  far  from  embarrassing 
the  actions  of  the  directory,  let  us  invite  them  to  display  all 
the  power  which  you  have  lately  confided  to  them  ;  second 
them  without  reserve.  Let  not  the  movement  of  Praireal, 
made  to  regenerate  the  executive  power,  be  directed  against 
the  executive  power  regenerated.  Let  our  attitude  restore 
the  confidence,  destroy  the  inquietudes,  and  bring  calm  into 
the  bosoms  of  the  friends  of  the  republic.  Let  our  enemies 
renounce  the  hope  of  seeing  Frenchmen  destroy  each  other 
with  their  own  hands,  and  thus  serve  as  auxiliaries  to  the 
coalition  of  kings, 

"  Let  them  hear  once  more,  those  men  of  blood  and  dis- 
cord, the  oath  which  we  renew  to  defend  the  directorial 
constitution  for  and  against  all  the  parties." 

Tiie  whole  of  the  assembly  rose  in  repeating  the  oath. 
Notwithstanding  that  apparent  unanimity,  my  discourse 
was  considered  by  the  Jacobins  as  a  culpable  attack.  The 
next  day  their  paper  (Journal  of  Freemen)  complained  that 
my  declaration  against  the  re-establishment  of  the  revolu- 
tionary system,  and  my  discourse,  had  furnished  the  sub- 
ject of  a  pamphlet,  entitled  : — No  more  terror,  no  more  of 
the  regi.ne  of  i7J3  ;  doicn  ivith  the  Jacohins.  The  Journal 
thus  far  spoke  only  the  truth,  but  in  railing  against  me  and 
Sieyes,  it  exhausted  upon  us  its  rich  vocabulary  of  injuries. 
T]ie  censure  of  the  journals  had  been  taken  from  the  gov- 
ernment ;  and  while  they  were  for  the  law  of  repression, 
the  license  of  the  periodical  press  was  without  limits. 

This  journal  was  the  echo  of  the  popular  society  which 
had  opf^ned  the  sittings  of  the  hall  of  the  manege  and  which 
had  taken  the  name.  They  had  profited  by  the  movement 
of  Praireal  to  open  the  clubs.  The  law  forbade  those  re- 
unions to  have  presidents,  to  make  collective  addresses,  and 
to  adopt.  But  they  eluded  the  law  step  by  step  ;  the  Gen- 
eral Augereau  was  nominated  president  under  the  name  of 
the  regulator ;  several  deputies  were  named  secretaries, 
and  several  others  had  themselves  registered.  The  audaci- 
ty of  that  society  increased  by  such  a  re-enforcement,  and 
Paris  heard  with  consternation  come  out  of  that  new  tribune 
the  names  and  maxims  of  1793.  The  number  of  the  au- 
ditors augmented  every  day,  and  they  formed  externally 
considerable  meetings.  In  those  groups  they  repeated  the 
denunciations,  the   patriotic  songs,   the  provocations  re- 


132  MEMOIRS    OF 

sounded  in  the  hall.  They  accused  with  emulation  minis- 
ters, generals,  deputies,  and  our  commission  the  eleven, 
who  had  all  of  them  the  honours  of  the  denunciation. 
They  spoke  vaguely  of  a  grand  plot  in  the  town  to  pro- 
claim a  constitutional  king,  and  they  directed  the  suspicions 
upon  the  director  who  had  resided  at  Berlin.  They  mena- 
ced the  republicans  with  a  near  danger,  to  excite  them  to 
an  emeute.  "  By  whom  are  we  governed  V — exclaimed  an 
orator — "  by  perfidious  and  crafty  ministers  ;  by  mean  ty- 
rants without  genius'?  Yes,  republicans,  death  hovers  over 
you  ;  and  it  will  devour  all,  if  your  energy  abates.  The 
arms  of  the  assassins  are  ready !  The  poniards  are  sharp- 
ened !  .  .  .  They  are  about  to  sound  your  last  hour !  .  .  . 
Will  you  perish  thus  pusillanimously  ]" — "  No,  no  !"  cried 
all  the  voices  within  and  without — "  Give  us  arms,  give  us 
arms, — To  arms  !  To  arms  !" — "  The  republic  demands  our 
solicitude ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  the  manes  of  the  mar- 
tyrs of  liberty  call  also  for  vengeance  !  .  .  .  Oh !  Romme  ! — 
Oh!  Goujon,  8oubrary,  Darthe,  and  Babceuf!  ....  You 
shall  be  avenged  ! — Yes,  you  shall  be  avenged  ! — but  by  the 
national  justice,  and  not  by  assassination  !" — It  was  impos- 
sible that  such  discourses  should  not  finish  by  kindling  the 
passions  of  the  multitude.  Often  had  the  guard  of  the 
council  hevw  obliged  to  interfere  ;  and,  to  stop  the  disorder, 
blood  had  flowed  more  than  once.  That  guard  was  charged 
only  with  the  police  of  the  legislative  enclosure,  and  the 
hall  of  the  manege  was  found  to  be  comprised  within  the 
enclosure  of  the  council  of  ancients.  That  council,  indig- 
nant at  the  turbulence  of  the  society,  resolved  to  tak€  away 
the  place  which  they  had  given  thera.  Forced  to  quit  the 
manege,  it  endeavoured  to  take  refuge  in  the  ancient  house 
of  the  oratorians ;  but  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  that  part 
of  the  town  repulsed  such  neighbours  who  were  so  little 
agreeable.  At  length  the  wandering  society  found  an  asy- 
lum in  the  ancient  hall  of  the  Jacobins,  and  it  was  there 
that  it  recommenced  its  tumultuous  reunions.  The  new 
hall  appeared  to  have  augmented  the  audacity  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  society.  The  ancients  were  most  particularly 
the  object  of  their  threats.  They  denounced  nominatively 
the  deputies  Chasset,  Barraillon,  and  Courtois.  The  ani- 
mositj"  towards  the  last  was  beyond  all  bounds.  ...  It  was 
him  who,  upon  the  9th  of  Thermidor,  had  m.ade  the  famous 
report  against  the  tyranny  of  Robespierre.  .  .  .  All  those 
who  regretted  at  the  bottom  of  their  heart  1793,  must  have 
had  the  name  of  Courtois  in  horror. 

The  anniversary  of  the  immortal  day  of  Thermidor  was 
arrived.  Courtois  celebrated  that  national  festival  by  rail- 
ing with  vehemence  against  the  regime  of  terror,  which 
madmen  appeared  desirous  to  bring  back  again  to  the  coun- 
try.   Sieyes,  as  president  of  the  directory,  pronounced  at 


LTJCIEN    BONAPARTE.  133 

the  Champ  de  Mars  a  discourse  which  was  worthy  of 
his  high  renown. (14)  The  accord  of  the  majority  of  the 
directory  and  the  council  of  ancients  was  evident ;  but  a 
great  part  of  the  council  of  five  hundred  leaned  towards 
the  revolutionary  measures.  At  the  sitting  of  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  9th  Thermidor,  they  were  occupied  among  us 
with  the  popular  societies,  and  they  proposed  a  law  for 
their  organization,  as  if  the  question  was  to  shelter  them 
from  the  hatred  of  the  government.  Each  sitting  traced 
more  profoundly  the  difference  of  sentiments  which  domi- 
nated in  the  two  councils.  The  ancients  rejected  in  that 
month  many  of  our  resolutions,  and  they  were  perhaps  in 
the  wrong  not  to  have  rejected  more  of  them. 

In  fact,  our  project  of  law  upon  the  repression  of  the 
abuses  of  the  periodical  press,  rejected  as  being  too  imper- 
fect, having  been  sent  back  to  us,  we  replied  by  voting  the 
suppression  of  the  papers  ;  and  that  resolution  was  approv- 
ed by  the  ancients,  notwithstanding  their  desire  to  augment 
the  authority  of  the  directory.  The  newspapers  of  the  roy- 
alists and  Jacobins  also  could  deliver  themselves  up  with- 
out any  bridle  to  their  passions.  That  condescendence  of 
the  ancients  is  explained  by  a  desire  of  conciliation  which 
appeared  to  them  to  be  advantageous  for  the  public  good, 
and  by  their  hopes  of  discussing  shortly  a  new  project  of 
repression :  but  their  good  intentions  did  not  prevent  the 
evils  that  the  license  of  the  press  produced  at  that  epoch- 
In  several  of  tiie  departments,  at  Bordeaux,  at  Lille,  at  the 
town  of  Orient,  at  Rouen,  at  Amiens,  serious  troubles  fol- 
lowed the  suppression  of  the  censure  of  the  nev*  spapers 
and  the  openings  of  the  clubs.  Those  troubles  were  every- 
where disadvantageous  for  the  Jacobins  ;  the  result  showed 
that  people  would  not  have  any  more  of  their  regimf^. 
"We  have  not  forgotten,"  said  they  on  all  sides,  "their 
atrocious  domination.  If  they  were  as  good  citizens  as  they 
pretend  to  be,  would  they  still  be  objects  of  anxiety  for 
all  the  French!  Do  they  think  that  they  can  only  do  good 
in  denouncing  and  proscribing  in  a  mass,  in  sowing  every- 
where suspicions  and  terror  1  People  do  not  frighten  those 
whom  they  love ;  but,  instead  of  reassuring  that  country 
which  they  pretend  to  love  in  their  hearts,  they  chill  it 
with  fear !" 

Another  of  our  resolutions,  far  more  fatal  even  than  the 
license  of  the  newspapers,  was  equally  approved  of  by  the 
ancients.  It  was  the  law  of  the  hostages,  worthy  sister  of  the 
law  of  the  suspected,  (15)  As  soon  as  a  commune  was  de- 
clared in  a  state  of  trouble,  the  administration  was  authori- 
zed to  choose  the  hostages  among  the  relations  of  the  emi- 
grants, the  ci-devant  nobles,  and  the  relations  of  rebels  who 
made  a  part  of  the  armed  crowds.  These  hostages  were  to 
be  imprisoned ;  those  who  got  away  were  assimilated  witb 

M 


134  MEMOIRS    OF 

the  emigrants.  For  each  republican  assassinated,  four  of 
the  hostages  were  to  be  transported,  and  a  sequestration 
put  upon  all  they  possessed.  The  hostages  in  a  mass  were, 
besides,  submitted  to  a  penalty  of  five  thousand  francs  for 
each  individual  that  was  assassinated.  In  decreeing  the 
project  of  law,  the  legislative  body  addressed  a  proclamation 
to  the  people.  (16)  'I'hat  proclamation  endeavoured  in  vain 
to  justify  a  law  worthy  of  '93.  How  could  the  directory 
and  the  two  councils  suffer  themselves  to  be  led  away  to 
commit  so  great  a  fault "?  The  royalists  had  become  threat- 
ening in  several  parts  of  the  West  and  vSouth  :  public  func- 
tionaries, the  purchasers  of  national  properties,  had  been 
assassinated ;  the  alarm  was  spread  from  village  to  village. 
At  Bordeaux,  the  streets  and  the  public  places  had  been 
covered  with  the  proclamations  of  Louis  XVIII.  In  the 
environs  of  Toulouse,  the  armed  bands  had  dared  approach 
near  tho  town,  with  the  white  flag  displayed.  At  length  the 
daily  clamours  of  the  clubs,  the  violence  of  the  public  papers, 
and  the  placards,  had  not  been  without  influence  upon  the 
best  minds.  Exaggeration  is  like  calumny ;  it  leaves  always 
something. 

The  deputy  Cornet,  in  explaining  the  motives  of  his  vote 
to  the  ancients,  expressed  thus  his  regrets  and  those  of 
many  of  ins  colleagues  :  "  1  have  already  said  that  this  pro- 
ject of  law  appeared  to  me  to  be  against  the  pacification 
which  was  proposed.  I  have  yielded  to  the  first  sentiment 
that  the  love  of  my  country  inspired ;  but  when  I  see  the 
members  of  your  commission  demand  from  you  the  adop- 
tion ;  when  our  colleagues  of  those  departments,  where  the 
application  of  the  law  would  be  a  sad  necessity,  look  upon 
it  as  the  most  efficacious  means  of  preserving  them  from 
the  trrrible  scourge  of  civil  war  which  surrounds  their 
countries,  and  might  invade  the  whole  of  France,  then  must 
we  lament  under  the  extremity  to  which  they  have  reduced 
us,  and  at  the  same  time  resign  ourselves,  since  it  is  the 
only  remedy  that  they  think  likely  to  assure  the  public 
welfare."  It  was  thus  that  the  council  was  misled.  They 
hoped  to  fortify  the  government  by  a  revolutionary  law 
which  only  weakened  it,  and  deprived  it  of  the  public 
esteem,  for  the  law  of  the  hostages  was  only  useful  to  the 
rebels,  whose  ranks  it  increased,  and  who  took  in  their  turn 
hostages  among  the  republicans.  In  going  beyond  the 
mark,  we  did  not  obtain  it,  as  it  always  happens. 

A  measure  of  the  same  sort  as  that  of  the  hostages  had 
been  decided  also  in  our  council.  The  project  of  the  loan 
of  a  hundred  millions,  voted  after  the  30th  of  Praireal,  had 
become  in  the  discussions,  preparatory  to  our  commissions, 
more  and  more  revolutionary.  When  we  voted,  nothing 
was  wanting ;  it  was  no  longer  a  loan,  but  a  tax  upon  the 
rich.     The  tax  was  progressive ;  the  ex-nobles  were  con- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  135 

demned  to  a  triple  payment.  The  council  of  ancients  re- 
pulsed our  project.  We  were  obliged  to  modify  it,  by 
taking  from  it  the  most  severe  measures  ;  and  the  ancients, 
after  a  very  animated  discussion,  approved  our  new  resolu- 
tion, although  it  was  little  better  than  the  first. 

They  rejected  afterward  our  project  of  law  against  the 
transported  priests. 

The  too  celebrated  Barrere,  as  well  as  his  accomplices, 
Billaud,  Varennes',  Vadier,  &c.,  was  excluded  from  the  am- 
nesty of  the  14th  Frimaire,  year  5.  A  speech  of  the  Gen- 
eral Lamarque  had  induced  the  council  of  five  hundred  to 
revoke  the  exception  which  struck  them.  The  ancients 
rejected  our  resolution.  Baraillot  acquired  new  rights  to 
the  hatred  of  the  Jacobins. 

"  Was  there  ever,"  said  he,  at  the  sitting  of  the  6th  Ther- 
midor,  "  a  more  horrible  epoch  than  that  where  virtue  and 
talent  were  a  title  of  proscription  ;  where  science  was 
obliged  to  conceal  itself,  or  mount  the  scaffold  ;  where  the 
man  of  property  was  constrained  to  give  up  his  place  to 
cannibals  and  vampires  1 

"  Bonaparte ! — would  you  have  dared  to  signalize  your- 
self beneath  that  dreadful  regime  1  Thou  wouldst  have 
quickly  partaken  of  the  fate  of  the  brave  Vestemaz.  What 
can  be  the  aim  of  the  indulgence  which  they  demand  for 
Barrere  1  Is  it  that  they  intend  to  recommence  the  work 
of  those  individuals  (I  forbear  to  call  them  men)  whom 
they  endeavoi;r  to  make  appear  innocent  1 

"  Pardon,  legislators,  pardon  me  these  transports  of  in- 
dignation  I  fancied  myself  near  to  the  year  8  of  the 

republic  !     But,  by  a  rapid  and  retrograde  movement,  I  find 

myself  brought  back  to  '93 For  I  hear  the  virtues  of 

Barrere  talked  of. 

"  Indulgence  for  the  misguided  crowd,  and  even  for  the 
guilty ;  but  not  for  the  satellites  of  that  splenetic  tyraiit  to 
whom  Thermidor  did  justice  but  too  late,  and  who  wanted 
only  a  little  genius  to  enslave  us.  How  can  they  dare  to 
lament  over  those  beings  who  have  committed  every  ex- 
cess, who  were  guilty  of  every  crime,  who  exercised  every 
tyranny,  and  who  are  still  disgusting  with  innocent  blood  f" 

Barrere  beheld,  then,  his  exile  prolonged ;  it  belonged 
only  to  a  stronger  and  calmer  power  to  render,  even  to 
Barrere,  the  soil  of  the  country.  Against  all  human  proba- 
bilities. Providence,  in  the  disasters  of  St.  Jean  d'Acre, 
prepared  for  France  the  accession  of  that  reparatory  gov- 
ernment. But  was  it  not  very  strange  that  those  same 
men  who  showed  themselves  so  vigorous  towards  Rewbell 
and  La  Reveillere,  demanded,  at  the  same  time,  the  recall 
of  Barrere  ! ! ! 

The  question  of  the  civil  oath  to  the  national  guards  of- 
fered to  the  Jacobins  a  more  favourable  result.     This  oath 


136  MEMOIRS    OF 

bore  the  words  of  hatred  to  royalty  and  anarchy.  They 
proposed  to  suppress  the  last  word.  Anarchy,  said  they, 
is  the  absence  of  the  government ;  it  is  absurd  to  swear 
hatred  to  that  which  is  negative.  The  General  Jourdan, 
the  conqueror  of  Fleurus,  supported  that  suppression.  A 
middle  party  terminated  the  quarrel.  The  civil  oath  bore 
afterwardhatr  ed  to  royalty  and  all  sorts  of  tyranny.  The 
ancients  sanctioned  the  change  that  the  Jacobin  party  cele- 
brated as  a  victory. 

The  real  victories  of  that  party  had  been  the  laws  of  the 
hostages  and  the  forced  loan.  But  they  pretended,  then, 
that  those  laws  fortified  the  government:  but,  above  all, 
they  desired  to  draw  the  centre  of  action  and  the  council 
of  five  hundred ;  and,  to  succeed,  it  was  necessary  to  abase 
and  weaken  the  directory.  It  was  for  that  purpose  that 
the  paper  of  the  freemen  and  the  club  of  the  Jacobins 
were  constantly  working  in  concert.  Sieyes  was  become 
more  than  ever  the  object  of  their  hatred,  after  he  had  un- 
masked them  in  the  solemnities  of  the  10th  of  August. 
This  passage  in  his  discourse  at  the  Champ  de  Mars  had 
torn  the  veil,  which,  upon  the  9th  Thermidor,  he  had  only 
lifted.  (17)  "  The  directory  knows  the  aim  of  those  men.  . . 
What  they  desire,  is  to  intoxicate  the  public  with  mistrust ; 
to  carry  confusion  and  discouragement  into  people's  minds, 
and  to  drive  the  French  to  despair ;  to  throw  all  into  con- 
fusion  It  is,  in  a  word,  that  they  may  govern,  at  what- 
ever price  it  may  be.  Frenchmen,  you  know  how  they 
govern  !" 

Far  from  being  discouraged,  the  Jacobin  journal  con- 
tinued to  express  itself  with  so  much  audacity  that  it  ap- 
peared as  if  certain  of  a  near  triumph.  "  The  directory," 
said  they,  "  have  raised  the  mask,  and  ostensibly  sanctioned 
the  massacre  of  the  republicans.  The  horrible  discourse 
of  its  president,  upon  the  10th  of  August,  is  an  inconceiv- 
able augmentation  of  the  counter-revolutionary  audacity 
compared  with  its  preceding  discourse.  The  directory 
dares  to  affirm  that  we  have  violated  the  constitution.  .  .  .  It 
has  lied, — it  is  an  odious  calumniator." 

The  violence  of  this  newspaper  was  less  dangerous  than 
the  mancEuvres  employed  at  the  same  time  in  all  parts  of 
the  republic.  In  the  clubs  of  the  departments,  they  propa- 
gated the  most  infamous  calumnies  against  the  three  direc- 
tors who  formed  the  majority.  Commissions  sent  from 
Paris  hawked  about  accusatory  addresses,  and  by  their 
means  the  affiliation  of  many  of  the  clubs  with  that  of  Paris 
was  already  assured.  The  club  of  Grenoble  offered  the 
scandal  of  a  panegyric  upon  Robespierre,  pronounced  at  the 
tribune ;  the  re-establishment  of  the  regime  of  '93  was 
highly  extolled,  and  a  new  convention  was  demanded  as  the 
sole  means  of  salvation.    At  the  door  even  of  the  legislative 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  137 

body,  placards  were  posted  up  to  excite  agitation  and  insur- 
rection. It  was  no  longer  time  to  hesitate.  The  commis- 
sion of  inspectors  of  the  council  of  ancients,  in  rendering 
an  account  of  those  placards,  proposed  to  send  them  to  the 
directory,  and  to  demand  why  they  did  not  cause  the  arti- 
cles of  the  constitution  to  be  executed  which  forbade  all 
collective  acts  lo  the  societies.  The  directory  replied  to 
this  cry  of  alarm  by  calling  upon  the  minister  of  the  police  ; 
and  that  minister  did  not  hesitate  to  accuse  the  excesses  of 
the  clubs,  and  to  demand  repressive  measures.  (18)  His  re- 
port was  sent  back  to  us  by  the  ancients,  and  it  excited 
among  us  a  very  violent  discussion  that  was  without  any 
result,  but  in  which  they  succeeded  to  have  it  passed  to  the 
order  of  the  day  upon  the  impression  of  the  report.  The 
directory,  however,  still  pursued  the  accomplishment  of  its 
duty ;  it  ordained  the  society  of  the  Jacobhis  to  be  closed, 
and  informed  us  of  that  great  measure  by  a  message,  in 
which  the  firm  tone  and  evident  reasons'  reduced  for  a  mo- 
ment its  adversaries  to  silence.  (19)  We  ordained  that  the 
project  of  law  upon  the  organization  and  the  limits  of  the 
political  societies  should  be  immediately  submitted  to  dis- 
cussion. A  second  message  upon  the  troubles  of  the  South 
was  read  in  a  secret  committee,  and  we  accorded  to  the  di- 
rectory for  a  month  the  riglit  of  making  domiciliary  visits. 
That  extraordinary  authority,  given  to  those  who  had  just 
put  an  end  to  the  Jacobins,  appeared  to  indicate  that  the 
two  councils  felt  the  necessity  of  not  weakening  the  gov- 
ernment. Yet,  notwithstanding,  in  the  same  sitting,  they 
obtained  from  us  a  measure  that  was  entirely  contrary, 
the  formation  of  a  commission  of  seven  members  to  present 
measures  of  public  welfare.  .  .  .  The  closing  of  the  Jaco- 
bins, and  the  troubles  in  the  South,  purposely  exaggerated, 
operated  differently  upon  people's  minds.  Tormented  with 
inquietude,  attacked  by  several  excellent  orators,  and  filled 
with  a  contagious  conviction,  like  Enchasserieux,  Briot,  and 
Lamarque,  we  could  no  longer  prevent  the  formation  of  that 
commission  which  we  had  repulsed  several  times,  because 
it  divided  the  public  authority  at  the  precise  moment  when 
it  ought  to  have  been  concentrated  in  a  single  point.  But 
such  are  too  often  the  consequences  of  a  numerous  assem- 
bly, moved  by  a  crisis  unexpected  by  some,  and  skilfully 
prepared  by  others.  In  vain  several  deputies  represented 
that  a  committee  for  measures  of  public  welfare  was  a  rev- 
olutionary authority;  that  we  had  an  executive  power 
whom  we  had  just  invested  with  the  right  of  domiciliary 
visits ;  that  there  were  no  new  measures  to  decree,  but  that 
it  was  necessary  to  execute  those  that  were  already  taken, 
and  that,  in  acting  thus,  we  overturned  with  one  hand  what 
the  other  had  raised.  .  .  .  All  was  in  vain  :  they  replied  by 
showing  the  letters  wliich  they  had  received  from  the  South 

M2 


138  MEMOIRS    OF 

and  the  West,  and  in  crying :  "  They  murdered  the  repuUi- 
cans !  The  ivhite  flag !  The  royalists  lend  the  hand  to  Suwar- 
roio  /"  All  that  we  could  obtain  was  to  repulse  the  per- 
manence, which  was  also  proposed  in  that  stormy  sitting, 
and  to  cause  the  commission  of  seven  to  be  named,  not  by 
the  president,  according  to  custom,  but  by  a  secret  scrutiny. 
That  form  of  election  was  extremely  important,  because  the 
president  Juviot,  who  belonged  to  the  exalted  party,  had 
probably  formed  a  committee  of  persons  who  thought  like 
him.  The  scrutiny  was  extracted  during  the  sitting,  and  I 
wsT  proclaimed  member  of  the  commission  of  seven,  as 
well  as  Chenier,  Danou,  Lamarque,  Enchasserieux,  Berber, 
and  Boulaye  de  la  Meurthe ;  the  friends  of  the  government 
had  thus  the  majority. 

In  the  state  of  irritation  in  which  the  council  of  five  hun- 
dred found  itself,  the  most  insignificant  circumstance  ap- 
peared serious.  The  General  Lefebvre,  who  commanded 
Paris,  had  written  to  the  president  Juviot,  to  announce  to 
him  that  the  grenadiers  of  the  legislative  body,  placed  at  his 
disposal,  not  being  necessary  in  the  quiet  situation  of  Paris, 
he  sent  them  to  their  quarters.  A  thousand  conjectures  were 
raised  upon  that  letter  :  was  it  not  an  indication  of  a  plot  1 
— Who  had  dared  to  place  the  guard  of  the  legislative  body 
under  the  orders  of  General  Lefebvre  ?  They  accused  the 
general,  by  saying  that  most  probably  he  had  lost  his  sen- 
ses !  They  challenged  the  inspectors  of  the  council.  I  was 
obhged,  in  that  quality,  to  answer  the  challenge ;  and  as  I 
felt  for  the  commandant  of  Paris  as  much  esteem  as  friend- 
ship, I  replied  as  follows  to  what  they  had  said  against 
him  : — "  I  can  assure  one  of  the  best  speakers  upon  the  fear 
which  he  expressed,  with  regard  to  the  subject  of  the  com- 
mandant of  Paris,  the  brave  Lefebvre  has  too  wise  a  head 
to  lose  his  senses  so  easily.  It  would  be  more  natural 
to  demand  informations  from  him,  than  to  i^ijure  hiai  at  the 
tribune.  Member  of  your  commission  of  mspectors,  I  de- 
clare that  I  am  completely  ignorant  of  the  point  in  ques- 
tion ;  it  is  either  equivocal,  or  the  order  which  disposed  of 
our  guard  came  from  another  authority  than  the  commission 
of  the  inspectors  of  your  council.  It  is  what  should  be 
sought  after  with  calmness,  and  known  with  '  certainty !' " 
The  informations  that  were  received  the  next  day  caused  all 
the  inquietudes  to  vanish.  The  inspectors  of  the  ancients, 
fearing  that  the  closing  of  the  Jacobins  might  bring  about 
some  troubles,  had  charged  the  chief  of  the  guard  of  the 
legislative  body  to  augment  with  a  hundred  men  the  post  of 
service,  and  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  com- 
mandant of  Paris.  But  the  letter  of  General  Lefebvre,  in- 
stead of  being  addressed  to  the  president  of  the  council  of 
agents,  had  been  addressed,  through  an  error,  to  our  presi- 
dent.   He  had  reason,  however,  to  be  alarmed  since  the 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  139 

question  was  to  dispose  of  our  constitutional  guard,  who 
had  no  other  superiors  than  the  inspectors  of  the  two 
councils. 

We  discovered  very  soon  how  much  they  had  exagger- 
ated the  troubles  in  the  West  and  the  South.  The  Chouans 
had  been  beaten  in  every  part  and  dispersed.  On  the  other 
side,  the  threats  of  the  society  of  Jacobins  dissipated,  in 
smoke.  The  commission  of  seven,  animated  by  better  sen- 
timents, sought  only  to  second  the  efforts  of  the  executive 
power,  to  re-establish  in  the  interior  order,  peace,  and  pub- 
lic confidence,  sole  end  that  we  had  hoped  to  obtain  in  fla- 
king the  revolution  of  Praireal. 

In  the  history  of  M.  Thiers,  except  the  exclusive  applica- 
tion of  the  title  of  patriots  to  the  Jacobins  (a  grave  error, 
which  cannot  be  too  much  condemned),  the  author  traces  a 
brilliant  picture  of  the  directory  at  that  period,  true  upon 
the  whole;  but  several  of  the  figures  in  the  first  plan  re- 
semble it  very  little.  It  is  in  describing  that  which  we 
have  not  seen  ourselves ;  the  truth  of  the  details  is  dif- 
ficult to  be  laid  hold  of.  How  did  M.  Thiers  learn  that 
Sieves,  infatuated  v/ith  Avhat  he  had  seen  in  Prussia,  tired 
his  colleagues  by  repeating  constantly,  "  It  is  not  thus  that 
they  do  at  Berlin  V  Those  informations  were  furnished 
him,  without  doubt,  by  interested  contemporaries,  who  were 
not  too  faithful.  I  saw  Sieyes  every  day,  and,  if  he  had 
vaunted  Berlin  in  that  stupid  manner  to  us,  we  should  have 
smiled  with  contempt ;  notwithstanding  our  ancient  esteem 
for  the  orator  of  the  tiers  etat,  we  should  have  said  that  he 
was  in  his  dotage,  and,  far  from  listening  to  him  with  re- 
spect, we  should  have  quickly  sought  another  chief.  No 
minister  was  ever  less  infatuated  with  a  court.  Surrounded 
with  the  most  fatal  prejudices,  our  ambassador  had  learned 
how  to  conquer  them  by  a  simpUcity  worthy  of  the  grand 
republic-  He  had  placed  himself  far  above  the  pitiful  in- 
trigues of  a  court.  The  day  upon  which,  by  means  of  some 
little  stratagems,  they  succeeded  in  making  the  ambassador 
of  another  power  take  for  a  moment  the  first  place,  Sieyes 
sat  down  quietly,  and  said  only  with  a  loud  voice,  "It  is  of 
little  consequence  where  I  am  :  the  place  luhich  is  occupied 
by  the  amhassador  of  the  French  people  always  hecomes  the 
first.''''  If  they  choose  to  find  infatuation  in  this  great  citi- 
zen, let  it  not  be  at  least  the  ridiculous  infatuation  of  being 
a  courtier  at  Berlin.  It  is  true  that  Sieyes  always  had  nu- 
merous detractors ;  he  was  not  gifted  with  the  genius  of 
intrigue,  without  which  we  are  rarely  appreciated  at  a  just 
value.  Many  of  his  rivals  thought  themselves  equal  to  him, 
or  at  least  pretended  to  have  it  thought  so.  They  succeed- 
ed sometimes  in  making  others  believe  it,  and  in  putting 
his  superiority  in  doubt.  They  repeated  everywhere  the 
«rords  of  Talleyrand,  the  inexhaustible  author  of  piquant 


140  MEMOIRS    OF 

sallies :  "  I  hear  for  ever  talked  of  the  'profound  head  of  the 
director  Sieyes  \  ...  It  is  hollow,  they  mean  to  say, 
without  doubt."  The  witty  author  of  that  epigram  possessed 
too  solid  a  wisdom  not  to  find  very  hollow  a  politic  of  which 
the  best  legislation  of  the  republic  was  the  only  principle. 
We  all  laughed  at  his  hon  7not ;  which  did  not  prevent,  not- 
withstanding that  the  heads  which  were  really  hollow  were 
those  who  took  a  pun  for  reasons. 

The  historian  Thiers  was  equally  deceived  when  he  trans- 
mitted this  pretended  dis(fourse  of  the  director  La  Reveil- 
lere — "  Barras  is  duped  by  Sieyes ;  Sieyes  is  duped  by  Bar- 
ras,  .  .  .  and  both  of  them  are  duped  by  the  Bo7iapartes." 
The  Bonapartes !  Napoleon  was  at  that  time  beneath  the 
walls  of  that  town  where  his  fortune  failed  him,  as  he  said 
in  laughing  once  at  the  Tuileries.  From  his  camp  of  St. 
Jean  d'Acre,  he  dreamed  of  Damascus,  Aleppo,  Bagdad,  and 
Constantinople,  and  thought  little  of  duping  Sieyes  or  Bar- 
ras. As  for  the  brothers  of  Napoleon,  they  must  have  been 
gifted  with  a  most  miraculous  spirit  of  divination,  if  they 
could  have  thought  at  that  period  of  the  first  of  those  two 
returns  which  struck  Europe  with  amazement.  Such  re- 
turns are  not  to  be  counselled,  are  not  to  be  prepared,  are 
not  to  be  plotted.  The  frigate  of  Egypt,  the  brig  of  the 
Elbe,  the  bark  of  Cesar,  are  only  to  be  moved  by  the  in- 
spired breath  of  genius.  Those  events  of  a  superior  order 
must  not  be  measured  by  the  common  measure.  For  my 
part,  I  affirm  that  the  return  from  Egypt,  as  well  as  that 
from  Elba,  surprised  us  as  much  as  anybody.  It  is  puerile 
to  believe  and  insinuate  that  I  intrigued  at  Paris  for  Napo- 
leon to  return  from  the  plains  of  the  East  just  at  the  mo- 
ment of  the  catastrophe.  The  Deus  ex  machina  is  no  longer 
good,  even  for  the  theatre,  and  it  should  not  be  introduced 
into  history ;  in  a  revolution,  above  all,  it  would  be  a  poor 
machine  to  set  to  work.  La  Reveillere,  notwithstanding 
his  theophilanthropy,  had  too  much  good  sense  to  believe 
and  say  such  absurdities. 

But  let  us  admit  for  a  moment  that  supposition.  .  .  It 
was  not  necessary  then  to  endeavour  to  fortify  the  new  di- 
rectory ;  it  was  not  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  most  re- 
nowned political  man,  and  the  most  celebrated  for  his  legis- 
lative wisdom,  and  for  his  antipathy  against  military  su- 
premacy. In  seconding  Sieyes  with  all  my  youthful  efforts, 
I  did  what  was  necessary  to  preserve  the  directorial  govern- 
ment. If  that  administration  could  have  been  saved,  it 
would  have  been  by  Sieyes,  and  those  who  were  ranged 
around  him.  And  it  migut  have  been  saved !  .  .  .  Yes, 
if  the  council  of  five  hundred  had  possessed  as  much  confi- 
dence as  the  ancients  in  the  wisdom  of  Sieyes  in  the  month 
of  Thermidor,  we  should  have  recalled  to  life  that  constitu- 
tion of  the  year  3,  which,  since  the  18th  of  Fructidor  and 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  141 

the  30th  Praireal,  and  notwithstanding  two  coups  cTetat^  wa-s 
nothing  more  than  a  corpse.  And  Napoleon  would  not 
have  found  the  republic  almost  at  dissolution.  Yes,  another 
Sieyes  would  have  been  the  republican  legislator  of  his 
country.  But  where  was  his  strength  1  Where  was  his 
cunning?  And  without  cunning,  without  the  sword,  how 
could  he  govern,  in  an  age  of  progression  and  universal 
pretensions  ? 


Month  of  Fructidor,  year  7.     From  the  ISth  of  August  to  th€ 

22d  of  September,  1799. 

Reactions  in  Italy — English  invasion  in  Holland — Defection  of  the  Dutch 
Fleet — Battle  ofNovi  and  death  of  Joubert — The  Jacobins  accuse  Sieyes 
— Garat  and  Chenier  defend  him — Pamphleteers  and  the  Journal  of 
Freemen — Decree  of  Accusation  against  both  of  them — My  report  in  the 
name  of  the  Commission  of  Seven — The  two  Jourdans — Several  of  the 
Journalists  are  arrested — Projects  of  changes  decreed  m  the  two  parties 
— Jourdan  proposes  the  Permanence,  and  the  Declaration  that  the  Coun- 
try is  in  danger — I  defend,  it— His  Propositions  are  Repulsed — The 
Views  of  Sieyes  for  reforming  the  Constitution  were  entirely  Republi- 
can—Concentration of  the  Executive  Power — Division  of  the  Powers 
— Universal  Suifrage — Conservative  Senate  electing  among  the  Can- 
didates named  by  the  People — Perfection  of  the  Ostracism  of  the  An- 
cient Republics — The  Consular  Reform  prepared  without  the  Return 
of  Napoleon  being  thought  of — The  Men  of  Brumaire  are  no  more  the 
Authors  of  the  Imperial  Monarchy,  than  the  constitutions  of  1789  are 
the  Authors  uf  the  Republic  of  '93 — But  for  the  unexpected  return  of 
Napoleon,  the  Jacobins  would  probably  have  triumphed — Personal  Aris- 
tocracy— Answer  to  the  Detractors  of  Napoleon — The  Example  of  Eng- 
land proves  that  a  Monarchy  really  Constitutional  may  be  the  best  of 
Republics. 

I.    THE    POWERS. 

The  probability  of  a  rupture  among  our  enemies  appeared 
to  shine  upon  our  horizon.  The  Russians  manifested  the 
intention  of  recalling  the  King  of  Sardinia  to  his  provinces 
of  Piedmont,  and  that  project  was  repulsed  by  Austria,  who 
aimed  at  plantiuf^  their  standards  in  the  Piedmontese  towns, 
instead  of  raising  the  colours  of  the  house  of  Savoy.  That 
cupidity  had  been  very  useful  to  us  in  the  war  of  the  first 
coalition ;  and  we  hoped  that  it  would  serve  us  a  second 
time. 

The  constancy  of  Prussia  in  her  neutrality  raised  also 
some  clouds  between  that  power  and  the  coalesced.  The 
ministers  of  London  and  Petersburgh  left  Berlin.  We  at- 
tached too  much  importance  to  those  departures  ;  but  it  left 
no  doubt  upon  the  actual  intentions  of  Prussia,  whose  ex- 
ample decided  Saxony  and  Denmark  to  keep  entirely  out  of 
the  way  of  the  coalition. 


142  MEMOIRS    OF 

Our  terrible  enemy,  Pitt,  become  more  powerful  than  ever, 
was  no  longer  satisfied  with  scattering  floods  of  gold  over 
the  continent.  He  prepared  for  several  months  a  powerful 
armament.  Ireland,  Holland,  Egypt,  Italy,  thought  them- 
selves menaced.  The  storm  fell  at  length  upon  the  coast  of 
Holland  ;  ten  thousand  English,  commanded  by  the  General 
Abercromby,  bathed  with  their  blood  the  downs  of  the  Hel- 
der.  .  The  resistance  of  the  General  Daendels  was  sharp  but 
useless.  The  Duke  of  York,  followed  by  a  second  expedi- 
tion, went  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  army  ;  and 
Brune,  who  commanded  the  French  and  the  Batavians,  sur- 
rounded the  invaders  with  his  formidable  columns. 

II.    THE    ALLIED    REPUBLICS. 

The  most  cruel  reaction  desolated  the  Italian  republics. 
Naples,  above  all,  was  by  turns  a  prey  to  the  ferocious  bri- 
gands of  Calabria,  commanded  by  the  Cardinal  Ruffo,  and  to 
the  scaffolds  raised  by  the  order  of  the  king.  The  armistice 
promised  was  not  sanctioned.  Nelson  suffered  one  of  his 
masts  to  become  the  gallows  of  the  brave  Admiral  Carac- 
ciola.  The  fraternity  of  arms  and  glory  was  powerless 
(for  the  first  time)  upon  the  soul  of  a  British  commander 
and  conqueror.  Naples,  during  several  weeks,  swam  with 
blood,  and  the  court  returned  triumphant. 

Switzerland  was  no  longer  but  a  field  of  battle.  The 
Austrian,  Russian,  and  French  camps  covered  her  narrow 
valleys  and  her  high  mountains.  The  authorities  of  the 
country  were  for  us  or  against  us,  according  to  the  marches 
or  the  countermarches  of  the  armies. 

Holland,  invaded  by  the  Duke  of  York,  appeared  desi- 
rous of  defending  herself  by  sea  and  land  ;  but  the  procla- 
mations of  the  Prince  of  Orange  had  penetrated  amid  all 
the  vessels.  That  house,  whose  name  is  inseparable  from 
the  glory  and  the  liberty  of  the  Batavian  power,  was  not 
forgotten.  The  sailors  of  the  fleet  refused  to  fight  the  pro- 
tectors of  their  ancient  stadtholder  ;  they  thought,  when 
they  surrendered  themselves,  of  passing  to  the  flag  of  Or- 
ange. .  .  .  But  the  point  in  question  was  twenty-five  ves- 
sels of  the  line.  .  .  The  British  lion  thought  proper  to  ad- 
judge to  himself  so  fine  a  prey  !  .  .  The  Dutch  fleet  ceased 
to  exist.  Aristides  would,  without  doubt,  have  struck  with 
an  anathema  such  a  victory.  .  .  .  But  Themistocles  would 
not  perhaps  have  neglected  so  useful  a  result.  The  party 
of  the  stadtholder  was  awakened  also  in  several  provinces. 
Brune  had  at  the  same  time  Ins  enemies  to  repulse,  and 
some  of  his  allies  to  satisfy. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  143 


III,    THE    ARMIES. 

Our  army  of  Italy  was  reorganized  with  haste.  It  then 
gave  us  a  spectacle  worthy  of  the  brightest  days  of  the  an- 
cient republics.  The  young  lieutenant  of  Napoleon,  Jou- 
bert,  on  receiving  the  command  from  the  hands  of  General 
Moreau,  nobly  demanded  the  assistance  of  him  whom  he 
came  to  replace ;  and  Moreau,  whose  glory  was  then  so 
brilliant  and  so  pure,  yielded  to  the  prayers  of  his  succes- 
sors, and  remained  to  aid  him  in  the  approaching  battle. 
Both  of  them  merited  that  the  crown  of  oak  should  be 
mingled  on  their  forehead  with  the  laurels  of  battle.  They 
commanded  together  a  general  attack  against  the  Austrian- 
Russians  ;  but  fortune  would  not  that  time  range  itself  on 
the  side  of  all  the  civic  virtues.  The  plain  of  Novi  was  the 
tomb  of  Joubert.  Moreau  saved  the  remains  of  our  army, 
which  the  superiority  of  numbers  had  vanquisiied,  notwith- 
standing the  most  noble  efforts,  and  the  names  of  Joubert 
and  of  Novi  traversed  France  amid  a  funeral  concert. 

The  child  of  victory,  the  invincible  Massena,  maintained 
himself  alone  with  advant^^ge,  notwithstanding^  his  inferior- 
ity :  he  attacked  even  the  enemies  at  the  passage  of  the  Aar, 
and  beat  them  com.pleiely  ;  but  that  advantage  was  not  of  a 
nature  to  balance  the  catastrophe  of  Novi. 

IV.    THE    INTERIOR. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  month  the  progress  of 
Svnvarrovv  struck  a  fatal  blow  upon  the  directory.  The 
parties,  suppressed  for  a  moment,  revived  with  Twey. 
The  Jacobins  and  the  royalists,  far  from  being  coalesced, 
were  very  frank  enemies  ;  but  the  impatience  of  the  first, 
and  the  hatred  of  the  -second,  tended  equally  to  overthrow 
the  government.  The  interior,  in  this  month  of  reverses, 
oifered  everywhere  an  obstinate  and  bitter  struggle.  The 
Jacobin  new"sp:ipers  repeated  the  gross  contradiction  which 
they  had  given  to  the  directory.  "  Ii  there  could  be  found," 
said  they,  "  in  our  language  a  word  more  expressive,  we 
should  make  it  our  duty  to  employ  it.  Sieyes  is  more  cul- 
pable than  was  Carnot  and  Merlin.  If  he  does  not  change 
his  system,  there  must  be  made  another  18th  Fructidor  or 
30th  Praireal  for  him."  I  was  not  spared  by  those  indefati- 
gable denunciators.  They  reproached  me  for  having  been 
a  member  of  a  revolutionary  committee  (singular  accusa- 
tion in  their  mouths),  of  having  been  named  deputy  at 
twenty-three  years  gS  age,  in  a  department  that  had  no 
right  to  name  that  year — of  being  the  brother-in-law  of  an 
emigrant,  and,  what  was  still  more  extraordinary,  of  having 
endeavoured  to  assassinate  some  merchants  of  Morocco,  to 


144  MEMOIRS   OF 

obtain  possession  of  their  vessel,  &c.  Since  we  had  de- 
clared our  horror  for  1793,  we  had  become  conspirators, 
traitors,  assassins!  The  authors  of  those  poisonous  wri- 
tings caused  at  the  same  time  the  most  imprudent  pam- 
phlets to  be  distributed :  one  of  those  pamphlets,  entitled 
"  Change  of  Residence,"  placing  the  council  of  ancients  at 
Montmartre,  (where  the  gallows  had  formerly  stood !)  The 
ancients  lost  patience,  and  they  denounced  to  the  executive 
power  the  pamphlet  and  the  Journal  of  Freemen.  In  com- 
municating to  us  their  decree,  they  made  no  doubt  of  our 
consent.  But  they  were  deceived  in  their  expectations ; 
notwithstanding  the  speech,  full  of  high  thoughts  of  our  col- 
league Cabanis,  the  council  of  five  hundred  passed  to  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  directory,  however,  caused  the 
journalist  and  the  pamphleteer  to  be  prosecuted  before  the 
tribunals. 

The  law  of  the  hostages  had  been  applied  to  twelve  de- 
partments of  the  West,  and  to  that  of  the  high  Garonne  ;  far 
from  having  calmed  them,  those  immoderate  measures  had 
increased  the  evil  and  propagated  the  alarms.  "  They  want  to 
bring  us  back  to  the  government  of  '93,"  they  cried  on  all 
sides ;  "  we  will  not  suffer  it."  The  agents  of  royahsni 
took  advantage  very  actively  of  that  unfortunate  law :  the 
bands  of  insurgents  reunited  in  crowds,  and  defended  them- 
selves, near  Toulouse,  in  several  combats  against  the  regu- 
lar troops.  In  the  departments  of  La  Charente,  the  royal- 
ist proclamations  and  the  white  flags  seriously  alarmed  the 
magistrates ,  and  the  national  guards  united  to  defend  them- 
selves. 

The  condemnation  of  the  Jacobin  newspaper  did  not  put 
a  stop  to  the  manceuvres  of  the  party.  Sieyes  was  de- 
nounced at  the  council  of  five  hundred,  as  having  been 
elected  before  the  year  was  accomj  iished.  Chenier,  in  re- 
pulsing that  calumny,  deplored  the  blindness  of  those  who 
sought  to  sow  division  among  the  authorities ;  he  made  an 
eloquent  eulogy  of  the  accused  director.  Garat  had  spoken 
in  the  same  sense  to  the  council  of  ancients.  We  rejected 
the  accusation  as  a  calumny.  To  put  an  end  to  that  rage  of 
aenunciation  against  the  directors  and  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  Chenier,  in  a  motion  of  order,  proposed  to  us 
to  submit  to  severe  rules  the  denunciators  of  the  members 
of  the  directory  and  the  councils.  "  We  must,"  said  they, 
"  fix  the  conditions  where  such  conditions  may  be  read  at 
our  tribune.  Is  it  not  necessary  to  ascertain  the  existence 
and  the  civil  state,  of  the  informer  1  Ought  a  denunciation, 
signed  by  an  emigrant,  to  be  read !  There  no  longer  exists 
any  strength  for  us  but  in  union.  Those  who  would  divide 
us  are  then  the  enemies  of  France.  Does  not  the  coalition 
hide  the  guilty  hand  which  ferments  our  discords'?  We 
must  not  acknowledge  the  republicans  in  that  handful  of 


LtCIEN    BONAPARTE.  145 

strangers,  of  new  and  unknown  men  in  the  revolution, 
which  was  made  without  them.  It  is  they  who  dare  accuse 
the  civilians  who  overthrew  the  throne  and  founded  the  re- 
public. The  good  sense  of  the  people,  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients,  the  firmness  of  the  directory,  and  yours,  will  baffle 
all  their  plots." 

The  proposition  of  Chenier  was  adopted  without  opposi- 
tion. 

The  commission  of  the  seven,  named  in  the  preceding 
month  to  present  measures  for  the  public  safety,  had  net 
yet  made  any  report. 

Out  of  seven  members,  there  were  four  of  us  very  little 
disposed  for  extraordinary  measures.  Wc  thought  the 
government  ought  not  to  be  embarrassed,  and  that  it  was 
better  to  let  it  act  in  liberty/ ;  but  the  impatient  accused  our 
idleness. 

Their  arguments  and  the  gravity  of  the  circumstances  de- 
cided us  to  unite.  Enchasserieux  and  myself  were  named 
reporters.  Enchasserieux  caused  several  measures  to  be 
voted  to  accelerate  the  raising  of  the  conscripts.  I  was 
charged  to  propose  the  project  of  lav/  and  the  following 
considerations  : 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,  To  fulfil  its  mandate  and 
obtain  a  useful  result,  your  commission  of  seven  have  been 
under  the  necessity  of  examining  the  situation  of  the  re- 
public. 

"  Its  attention  has  been  directed  upon  our  frontiers,  and 
upon  the  troubles  in  the  interior.  It  submits  to  you  the 
ideas  which  that  examination  has  suggested,  and  a  project 
of  the  resolution  in  consequence. 

"  Joubert  has  taken  the  command  of  the  army  of  Italy : 
the  hopes  of  the  Piedmontese  and  Cisalpine  patriots  are 
raised ;  the  confidence  of  our  troops  surrounds  them.  In  a 
few  days,  perhaps  at  this  moment,  Joubert  conducts  to  vic- 
tory ;  the  brave  impatient  reseize  it.  The  passage  of  the 
Bormida,  and  the  occupation  of  the  town  of  Acqui,  the  an- 
cient general  masters  of  Beaulieu,  are  satisfactory  presages. 
The  army  of  Switzerland,  commanded  by  Massena,  quits  a 
glorious  defensive,  necessitated  by  distress.  You  have 
learned  his  successes  ;  you  know  that  the  mount  St.  Gothard 
beheld  again  our  phalanxes,  and  you  learn  to-day  that  the 
Valais  is  reconquered.  Numerous  battalions  crowded  upon 
the  Rhine  ;  an  army  already  organized  marched  towards  the 
Alps.  Championnet  and  Moreau  directed  them :  the  first 
may  conquer  to-day  with  impunity ;  the  second  return  upon 
the  shore_s  of  the  great  river,  so  many  times  the  witness  of 
its  glory.  The  combined  fleets  of  France  and  Spain  await 
the  expedition  prepared  in  the  Enghsh  ports  at  a  great  ex- 
pense ;  the  reunion  of  those  fleets  proves  that  we  have  sin- 
cere allies,  and  that  their  interest  and  royalty  may  be  a  re- 

N 


146  MEMOIRS    OF 

pr&ach  to  governments  whose  principles  differ.  On  the 
other  side,  the  abuses  of  administration  are  corrected  in 
silence ;  the  fatal  inaptitude,  which  seconded  three  months 
ago  the  efforts  of  the  coalition,  is  replaced  by  an  indefatiga- 
ble zeal.  All  is  in  motion  and  reparation;  this  general 
movement,  wliich  succeeds  a  calm  of  too  long  a  duration, 
is  in  a  republic  the  only  guarantee  of  the  victory. 

"  Here,  then,  representatives  of  the  people,  are  the  fruits 
which  we  gather  from  the  events  of  Praireal.  Let  tlie  de- 
tractors of  that  day,  the  more  glorious  that  it  never  cost  a 
drop  of  blood,  judge  and  condemn  it  at  least  in  silence. 

"  Your  commission  is  far  from  finding  the  position  of  our 
armies  as  alarming  as  it  has  been  enJeavoui'ed  to  be  repre- 
sented ;  it  believes,  however,  that  it  is  right  that  you  should 
provide  against  reverses.  Excessive  security  might  become 
fatal, 

"  We  have  been  struck,  therefore,  with  the  necessity  of 
uniting  new  forces  to  guaranty  our  frontiers ;  and  although 
the  probabihty  of  the  danger  is  further  removed  every  day, 
we  have  resolved  to  propose  to  you  the  formation  of  an 
army  of  a  second  line,  ready  to  march  upon  every  point 
directed  by  the  executive  power. 

"As  for  the  interior,  your  commission  cannot  dissimulate 
to  you  the  painful  state.  From  the  first  days  of  Thermidor, 
royalism,  at  the  aspect  of  an  active  and  regenerated  direc- 
tory, trembled  for  the  coalition;  royalism,  implacable  in 
her  hatred,  and  accustomed  to  find  resources  in  her  de- 
feats, calls  again  discord  to  her  aid,  and  replies  by  civil 
war  to  the  call  of  strangers.  Faithful  to  its  A'ightful  sys- 
tem, it  takes  all  masks  and  all  forms  to  excite  troubles.  It 
arms  in  La  Vendee.  .  .  .  Assassinates  in  the  West  and  South. 
....  It  recruits  in  the  towns,  and  laments  in  the  country 

upon  the  fate  of  the  conscripts There  it  advances 

with  the  menacing  eye  of  a  tiger Here,  not  yet  dar- 
ing to  show  itself  openly,  it  creeps  and  crawls  like  a  rep- 
tile. ^ 

"  Our  troops,  it  is  true,  make  everywhere  the  royal  troops 
bite  the  dust.  You  know  the  patriotic  conduct  of  the 
functionaries  and  the  citizens  of  the  high  Garonne.  At 
Montauban,  in  the  interval  of  three  hours,  several  companies 
of  cavaliers  have  formed  themselves  against  the  revolted. 
But  it  is  already  a  great  deal  to  have  dared  to  combat  with 
us;  those  attempts  faihng  are  ready  to  be  renewed,  and 
proves  the  hopes  and  the  audacity  of  royahsm Fa- 
thers of  the  country !  you  can  no  longer  shut  your  eyes  upon 
the  abysses  that  are  open  at  a  time  in  several  parts  of  the 
republic. 

"Your  commission  has  felt  that  the  sword  is,  for  the 
future,  the  only  law  that  ought  to  be  opposed  to  the  parti- 

fqn-,  r.^  .v.^.oiH.        It    hns    fpH    that   thev  nijght.  to  pnbji'^b   all 


LTJCIEN    BONAPARTE.  147 

their  attacks,  that  the  general  indignation  may  be  raised 
against  them.  It  thinks  that  at  the  present  moment  the 
second  measure  of  pubhc  safety  is  to  create  a  force  partic- 
ularly destined  to  repress  the  troubles  of  the  interior,  and 
we  have  adopted  the  formation  of  an  army  in  the  depart- 
ments. 

"  Your  commission  having  decided  unanimously  the  crea- 
tion of  those  two  new  armies — its  attention  is  drawn  upon 
the  means  of  execution. 

"  The  raising  of  the  auxiliary  battalions,  decreed  by  the 
law  of  the  10th  Messidor,  offers  resources  sufficient  for  the 
completion  of  the  actual  regiments,  and  for  the  armies  of 
the  second  and  departmental  line.  The  affirmative'has  been 
proved  to  us  ;  after  having  filled  the  ancient  regiments,  the 
auxiliary  battalions  still  ofler  a  surplus  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  sufficient  for  the  two  new  corps.  Our  enemies 
ought  to  know,  however,  that  to  augment  our  levies  we 
only  need  a  signal.  The  ardour  of  our  youth  is  equalled 
only  by  the  zeal  of  the  citizens  of  every  age.  What  French- 
man but  would  prefer  to  perish,  rather  than  drag  on  without 
honour  a  miserable  life  beneath  the  yoke  of  a  barbarian  ? 
Who  could  support  the  idea  of  becoming  the  conquest  of  a 
Cossack,  and  to  see  the  great  people,  conquerors  of  so 

many  kings,  reduced  to  become  the  slave  of  slaves? 

Oh  !  my  country  !  Notwithstanding  the  perfidious  asser- 
tions and  the  hatred  of  the  counter-revolutionists,  thy  no- 
ble bosom  is  ready  to  open  again  for  liberty.  That  bosom 
■was,  it  is  true,  torn  by  parricide  children.  It  is  still !  .  .  .  . 
but  all  thy  blood  has  not  yet  been  shed!  There  yet  re- 
mains for  independence  and  glory  !  Before  strangers,  every 
Frenchman  cries.  Fidelity  to  the  republic !  no  more  divis- 
ions, no  more  interior  struggles,  no  more  unjust  suspi- 
cions !  .  .  .  .  The  constitution  and  victory !  The  first  is 
confided  to  us,  the  second  is  for  our  armies,  and  we  and  the 
armies  will  fulfil  our  duties,  or  we  wiU  perish  at  the  post 
which  is  assigned  for  us. 

"  Your  commission  proposes  to  you  to  demand  an  account, 
every  ten  days,  of  the  directory,  of  the  levy,  and  of  the  arm- 
ing of  the  auxiliary  battalions ;  it  proposes  also  to  you  to 
proclaim  at  the  national  tribune  the  names  of  the  zealous 
departments,  and  the  names  of  the  negligent  departments. 
The  honourable  naming  awaits  them,  and  without  doubt  the 
Cote-d'or  and  La  Meurthe,  where  the  levy  is  accomplished ; 
the  high  and  lower  Rhine,  where  they  act  with  zeal,  shall  be 
the  first  to  obtain  that  recompense  which  our  warriors  gain 
almost  every  day. 

"  A  last  observation  has  struck  us : — -The  plots  of  our  ene- 
mies are  prepared  in  silence ;  their  bands  are  organized  in 
darkness ;  they  are  scattered,  and  will  fight  like  the  Arabs 
of  the  desert ;  they  piUage,  assassinate,  separate^  and  unite 


148  MEMOIRS    OF 

to  pillage  and  assassinate  again Such  is  the  seal  of 

reprobation,  the   seal  of  the  stranger,  that,  for  six  years 
past,  has  been  stamped  upon  their  foreheads.     But  we  ! — It 
is  the  publicity,  the  splendour,  the  imposing  reunions  that 
are   alone   worthy  of  the  national  grandeur.     The  troops 
that  are  dissesninated  are  sometimes  useful;  but  too  often 
they  are  the  prey  of  brigands,  who  surprise  them  unawares. 
Those  brigands  watch  the  insulated  gendarmes,  the  small 
detachments,  and  the  cash-chests  ill-escorted.  .  .  When  they 
see  a  departmental  army  organized  ;  when  that  army  covers 
several  points,  and  tliat  in  the  south,  as  in  the  north,  those 
standards  tioat  upon  immense  camps  ;  when  those  camps, 
in  case  of  necessity,  become  the  point  of  reunion  of  the 
neighbouring  national  guards,  concentrating  in  their  bosom 
the  republican  thunder,  then  doubt  not  tliat  fear  will  dis- 
perse  the  conspirators,  and  the  stipendiaries  of  Pitt  will 
tremi)le — the  mint  of  gold  will  give  w^ay  in  their  souls  be- 
fore the  fear  of  death  ;  upon  tlie  first  rum.our  of  a  revolt  an 
avenging  legion  wili  fly  to  the  spot  Vviiere  they  attempt  it. 
....  Wo,  t]ien,  wo  to  the  rebellious  commune,  if  there  is 
one  that  dares  to  raise  the  banner  of  royalism !     The  fol- 
lowing is  the  project  of  your  commission. 

"  1st.  The  executive  directory  will  render  an  account, 
every  ten  days,  to  the  legislative  body,  of  the  levy  of  the 
auxiliary  battalions,  and  their  equipment,  and  their  arma- 
ment. 

"  2d.  The  directory  will  indicate  the  departments  which 
display  the  greatest  activity  in  the  execution  of  the  law  of 
the  10th  of  Messidor,  as  well  as  all  of  those  whose  tardiness 
is  remarkable.  The  names  of  those  departments  shall  be 
solemnly  proclaimed  by  Vae  president  of  each  council. 

"  3d.  When  the  auxiliary  battalions  shall  have  completed 
the  regim.ents  of  the  active  army,  the  remaining  force  sliall 
be  divided  into  two  bodies. 

"  4th.  The  first  shall  be  united  as  an  army  of  the  second 
line  upon  the  points  fixed  by  the  directory. 

"  5th.  The  second  shall  be  formed  by  the  departmental 
army  particularly  destined  to  repress  the  troubles  in  the  in- 
terior." 

The  propositions  for  those  two  new  armies,  of  which  one 
was  to  act  in  the  interior,  had  greatly  augmented  the  power 
of  the  government ;  for  it  was  for  a  contrary  end  that  the 
commission  of  seven  had  been  formed.  It  was  not  measures 
of  strength  and  concord  that  they  expected  from  us.  Our 
project  was  attacked  without  circumspection ;  it  was  ad- 
journed, then  put  aside.  They  had  concluded  that  to  have 
propositions  of  law  for  public  safety,  as  ihey  expected,  it  was 
necessary  to  have  another  commission.  They  reproached 
Jourdan  for  having  given  his  vote  to  my  report,  which  they 
found  insignificant  and  favourable  to  the  directorial  despo- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  149 

tism.  That  general  was  surrounded  with  a  well-merited 
esteem ;  he  was  equally  beloved  at  the  council  as  in  the 
armies.  Sieyes  anxiously  desired  to  reconcile  him  with  the 
government,  and  I  took  him  several  times  to  the  Luxem- 
bourg. In  the  reunions  of  the  commission  of  seven,  we 
had  frequent  occasion  to  exchange  amicably  our  reciprocal 
convictions.  I  had  succeeded,  with  the  aid  of  Boulai  de  la 
Meurthe  and  Chenier,  to  modify  the  opposition  of  that  pure 
soul,  sufficiently  exasperated  only  by  the  reverses  of  our 
armies,  to  recur  to  conventional  measures  as  necessary  for 
pubhc  safety.  After  one  of  our  reunions  in  committee,  the 
discussion  between  us  having  been  raised  to  a  degree  of  un- 
expected violence,  I  retraced  the  inevitable  excesses  of  the 
system  to  which  his  friends  misled  him,  and  in  the  midst  of 
several  warm  speeches  I  made  use  of  an  interpellation  which 
would  have  appeared  an  outrage  to  a  less  virtuous  man : 
"  Ah !  Jourdan  de  Fleurus  !"  I  exclaimed ;  "  Jourdan  de  Fleu- 
rus !  wouldst  thou  then  become  '  Juurdan  coupe  V  "  T6tes. 

(20)  Our  excellent  colleague,  confused  a  moment,  advan- 
ced immediately  towards  me,  and,  holding  out  his  hand  to 
me  in  a  friendly  manner,  his  friendship  was  assured  to  me 
from  that  day.  He  had  sufficiently  coincided  with  us  to 
place  a  departmental  army  at  the  disposition  of  the  govern- 
ment. Unfortunately,  the  catastrophe  of  Novi  had  renewed 
his  patriotic  inquietudes ;  he  again  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  Jacobin  party,  where  we  had  to  combat  him  till 
the  18th  Brumaire. 

The  rigour  of  the  ancients  and  the  directory  against  the 
newspapers  and  pamphlets,  had  not  repressed  their  licen- 
tious excesses.  Upon  the  news  of  the  disaster  of  Novi,  and 
of  the  defection  of  the  Batavian  fleet,  they  no  longer  knew 
any  limits ;  Moreau  and  Macdonald  had  delivered  up  the 
army  of  Italy  to  the  Russians  ! ! !  The  directors  had  deliver- 
ed up  the  fleet  of  the  Texel  to  the  Enghsh !  They  called 
upon  the  people  to  save  themselves.  The  directory  deter- 
mined all  at  once  upon  a  vigorous  measure;  the  17th  Fruc- 
tidor  they  caused  eleven  journalists  to  be  arrested,  and 
placed  seals  upon  their  presses.  They  informed  us  of  it  im- 
mediately by  a  message. (21)  They  addressed,  at  the  same 
time,  a  proclamation  to  the  French.  (-22)  The  directory 
thought  to  have  the  right  to  act  thus  after  the  article  145  of 
the  constitution,  of  which  the  following  is  the  text : 

"  If  the  directory  is  informed  that  any  plot  or  conspire 
against  the  safety  of  the  exterior  and  interior  of  the  state, 
they  may  decree  mandates  to  appear,  and  mandates  of  ar- 
rest, against  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  authors  and 
accomplices." 

The  next  day  was  the  anniversary  of  the  18th  Fructidor. 
Sieyes  alluded,  in  his  speech,  to  the  rigorous  act  exercised 
against  the  periodical  papers.  (23)    The  opinion  which  he 

N  2 


150  MEMOIRS    OP 

demanded  with  so  much  frankness,  was  favourable  to  him, 
not  unanimous,  but  in  great  majority.  The  council  of  an- 
cients, who  had  provoked  it,  approved  of  it  highly ;  they  ex- 
pressed a  lively  regret  at  having  revoked  the  law  of  censure 
of  Fructidor,  before  they  had  promulgated  a  law  of  repres- 
sion. But  the  council  of  five  hundred  heard  the  directorial 
message  with  less  favour.  Bxiot  accused  the  directory  with 
the  most  scandalous  tyranny.  "  I  declare  to  France,"  said 
he,  "  that  a  coup  d'etat  is  in  preparation.  Perhaps  the  di- 
rectors have  a  treaty  of  peace  in  one  pocket,  and  a  constitu- 
tion in  the  other,  for  the  pubhc  calamities.  If  the  act  which 
I  have  just  denounced  is  consummated,  it  is  necessary  that 
the  people  should  come  to  our  aid ;  and  when  we  have  no 
longer  liberty  or  independence,  they  must  rise  and  save 
themselves,"  These  v/ords  v/ere  not  wanting  of  echoes  in 
the  council,  but  they  remained  without  any  other  result 
than  to  cause  them  to  put  immediately  the  penal  law  in  de- 
liberation against  the  abuses  of  the  press ;  every  sensible 
nimd  felt  that  to  deprive  the  government  of  the  censure 
and  the  penal  law,  and  deliver  it  up  to  the  unpunished  rage 
of  the  contrary  parties,  was  to  reduce  it  to  impotence.  The 
application  to  the  journalists  of  a  constitutional  article  di- 
rected against  the  cases  of  confiscation,  was,  without  doubt, 
forced ;  but  there  was  less  inconvenience  in  forcing  the  ap- 
plication of  an  article,  than  to  leave  the  power  at  the  mer- 
cy of  the  royalists  and  Jacobins.  Sieyes,  by  his  firmness, 
acquired  new  rights  to  the  national  confidence. 

The  arrestation  of  so  niany  journalists  appeared,  to  a 
great  part  of  the  five  hundred,  to  announce  a  coup  d'etat ; 
they  thought  themselves  menaced ;  they  united  around  the 
directors  Gohier  and  Moulins.  Jourdan,  Augereau,  and  La- 
marque,  convinced  that  the  danger  was  real,  put  them- 
selves in  defence,  and,  as  in  a  revolution,  the  better  to  be 
able  to  defend  one's  self,  it  is  wisest  to  attack,  it  was  soon 
resolved  among  the  Jacobins  to  cause  the  country  to  be 
declared  in  danger,  and  to  decree  the  permanence. 

I  ought  not  to  dissemble  here  that,  for  several  months 
past,  many  of  the  deputies  of  our  party,  frightened  at  the 
state  of  afl'airs,  had  thought  of  the  means  of  ameliorating 
them.  The  Jacobins  not  only  thought,  but  they  endeavour- 
ed with  constancy  to  bring  us  back  to  the  conventional 
measures.  Jjooking  upon  the  safety  of  the  republic  pre- 
cisely in  an  inverse  sense  from  the  Jacobins,  we  thought 
with  Sieyes,  that  we  ought  to  concentrate,  more  than  ever, 
the  power  in  the  government,  as  long  as  foreign  invasion 
menaced  us.  The  ideas  of  1793,  which  appeared  salutary 
to  our  adversaries,  appeared  mortal  and  impracticable  to  us. 
Each  party  made  its  plans.  "  What  shall  ive  do  if  ive  are 
attacJcedV  This  was  what  they  said  on  both  sides.  To 
neutralize  the  influence  of  the  generals,  Sieyes  and  his  two 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  151 

colleagues  had  placed  their  hopes  upon  the  youthful  con- 
queror of  the  Tyrol,  the  brave  and  unfortunate  Joubert, 
Overtures  were  made  to  him  ;  he  modestly  replied  that  he 
was  not  yet  suiTiciently  known  by  victoiy  to  repose  upon 
his  laurels  ;  they  gave  him  the  command  of  the  army  of 
Italy.  If,  instead  of  falling  at  Novi,  Joubert  had  vanquish- 
ed Suwarrovv,  his  glory  would  have  sufficed  to  balance  that 
of  his  rivals.  I  so  little  expected  the  return  of  Napoleon, 
that  I  had  embraced  with  ardour  the  hope  that  Sieyes  had 
placed  in  the  victories  and  virtues  of  Joubert.  His  early 
loss  appeared  to  us  a  public  calamity. 

After  that  loss,  Sieyes  was  fearful  that  the  struggle, 
thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  generals  of  the  council,  might 
finish  against  the  directory.  I  believe,  though  unable  to 
say  positively,  that  the  overtures  made  to  Macdonald  and 
Moreau  were  received  with  coldness.  I  had  been  ignorant 
of  the  communications  which  might  have  existed  between 
Sieyes  and  those  two  generals.  It  was  the  union  of  Jour- 
dan  that  I  had  preferred,  and  Sieyes  engaged  me  to  make 
some  attempts.  I  believe  that  no  one  would  have  been 
more  calculated  than  the  citizen  hero  of  Fleurus  to  cause 
the  project  of  the  republican  form  to  succeed,  sole  aim  of 
our  hopes.  I  spoke  to  Jourdan  on  the  part  of  Sieyes,  but 
it  was  in  vain.  It  was  not  in  concentrating  the  directorial 
power,  but  in  concentrating  the  authority  in  the  council  of 
five  hundred,  that  Jourdan  desired  to  save  the  repubUc. 
Sieyes,  alarmed  by  the  report  of  a  reunion  held  at  Berna- 
dotte's,  said  to  me  one  da}'',  with  a  sigh — "We  have  no  longer, 
then,  a  sword  for  us  :  ah !  why  is  not  your  brother  here  '?" 
He  must  have  thought  the  danger  very  pressing  to  have  let 
that  wish  escape  him  ;  and,  in  fact,  all  the  probabilities,  in 
case  of  a  violent  struggle,  appeared  to  be  in  favour  of  the 
Jacobins. 

Of  all  the  generals,  the  minister  of  war,  Bernadotte,  was 
the  most  suspected  by  Sieyes  for  his  ambition  and  auda- 
city ;  the  resolution  had  been  taken,  for  several  days  past, 
to  take  the  ministry  from  him — Sieyes  and  Roger  Duces 
wanted  to  replace  him  after  the  arrestation  of  the  journal- 
ists ;  the  incertitude  of  Barras  alone  retarded  that  vigorous 
act.  Barras,  according  to  his  custom,  had  opened  negotia- 
tions with  everybody.  Bernadotte  retained  Barras,  and 
excited  Jourdan.  It  was  after  a  nocturnal  conference  held 
by  the  minister  of  v/ar,  that  Jourdan,  having  united  the  com- 
mission of  seven,  invited  us,  in  a  rude  and  peremptory  tone, 
to  propose  to  the  council  the  permanence,  and  to  declare 
the  country  in  danger.  The  commission  having  rejected 
his  invitation,  he  hastened  to  the  council,  surrounded  by  all 
those  who  thought  like  him,  and  he  pronounced  a  written 
speech, (24)  in  which  the  following  passages  were,  above  all, 
remarkable. 


152  MEMOIRS    OF 

"  The  dangers  of  the  country  are  so  imminent,  that  it  is 
no  longer  permitted  to  keep  silence.  He  who  persists  in 
not  speaking,  renders  himself  guilty  of  complicity  in  the 
evils  which  weigh  upon  the  republic,  and  those  which 
menace  it. 

"  Yes,  the  country  is  in  danger ! — To  delay  any  longer  in 
proclaiming  that  afflicting  truth,  would  be  to  repulse  the 
means  of  saving  it — if,  after  that  proclamation,  a  special 
commission  is  charged  to  present  us  the  measures  of  public 
safety. 

"  Let  us  cease  to  walk  in  the  dark :  let  us  advance  with 
quick  steps  in  the  vast  career  ivhich  ive  have  to  run.  The 
safety  of  the  people  is  the  supreme  law^ 

'I'hese  passages,  more  particularly  applauded  by  a  for- 
midable mass  of  the  deputies,  were  also  by  the  galleries  in 
the  most  lively  manner. 

Jourdan  finished  by  proposing  the  formation  of  a  commis- 
sion of  nine  members.  It  was  that  which  they  had  deter- 
mined upon  obtaining  at  any  price.  Scarcely  had  the  ora- 
tor finished,  when  they  decreed  the  impression  of  his  speech 
in  twelve  copies,  and  demanded  on  all  sides,  with  loud  cries, 
a  vote  of  urgency.  Chenier  appeared  at  the  tribune,  where 
at  first  he  could  not  make  himself  heard.  The  deputies  and 
the  spectators  had  never  evinced  so  much  exultation.  Un- 
usual clamours,  personal  provocations,  resounded  on  aU 
sides.  One  half  of  the  assembly  cried,  with  furious  gestic- 
ulations, Put  it  to  the  vote :  save  the  counti-y. — The  other 
half  cried  with  not  less  force,  altogether.  Let  Chenier  speak. 
Augereau  sprang  to  the  tribune,  and  endeavoured  to  support 
the  motion  of  Jourdan ;  but  he  could  not  find  words  prompt 
enough,  and  the  tumult  increased  to  such  a  point,  that  the 
president  covered  his  head  to  establish  tranquillity.  It  was 
Boulai  de  la  Meurthe.  .  .  .  He  was  one  of  those  men  who 
are  not  to  be  frightened ;  he  had  voted  in  the  commission 
of  seven  with  Chenier,  Daunou,  and  myself,  against  Jour- 
dan, and  he  maintained  with  firmness  the  liberty  of  discus- 
sion, that  they  wanted  to  stitle  by  cries  and  menaces. 
After  a  quarter  of  an  hour  of  disorder,  Chenier  replied  to 
Jourdan. 

"  The  proposition  that  is  made  to  you,"  said  he,  "  is  of 
so  much  importance,  that  it  demands  the  most  profound  at- 
tention. I  am  about  to  combat  it,  and  I  shall  support  my- 
self upon  the  authority  of  the  past,  upon  the  conduct  even 
of  our  predecessors.  It  was  the  legislative  assembly  which, 
in  1792,  declared  the  country  in  danger.  What  was  then 
our  position  ■?  There  existed  a  conspiring  throne  to  destroy ! 
Our  armies,  feeble  and  ill-exercised,  were  commanded  by 
generals  named  in  the  centre  even  of  the  conspiration.  I  ap- 
peal to  the  sincerity  of  all  my  colleagues — what  comparison 
can  be  established  between  our  situation  in  June,  1793,  and 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  15^ 

that  in  which  we  are  at  this  time  1  An  evil  too  real  exists 
at  this  moment.  It  is  the  want  of  confidence  and  the  pow- 
er of  calumny.  I  know  that  they  talk  of  a  treaty  concluded 
with  the  king,  of  a  project  to  re-establish  a  monarchical  con- 
stitution !  But,  like  me,  without  doubt,  you  will  not  put  any 
faith  in  such  reports :  you  will  not  pronounce  so  lightly 
against  the  veterans  of  1789,  in  favour  of  those  modern  en- 
thusiasts. No,  it  is  not  upon  the  evidence  of  such  men  that 
you  will  give  way  to  unjust  suspicions." 

They  interrupted  the  orator  with  murmurs,  and  by  recall- 
ing the  question. 

"  I  am  in  the  question,"  he  rephed,  with  more  warmth 
than  ever — "  The  measure  taken  in  1792  is  not  applicable 
to  our  epoch,  because  the  dangers  are  not  the  same  ;  because 
then  a  just  mistrusr  was  a  duty,  and  at  this  moment  confi- 
dence is  a  necessary  virtue  ;  because  at  that  time  a  perjured 
king  conspired,  and  that  to-day  the  republican  magistrates 
hold  by  your  sufirnges  the  reins  of  the  executive  power." 

Upon  this  short  and  feeble  discourse  of  Chenier,  Lamarque 
replied  by  an  harangue,  prepared  like  that  of  Jourdan,  and 
in  which  the  vehemence  did  not  exclude  the  adroitness. 
The  proclamation  of  tJie  dangers  of  the  country,  and  the 
nomination  of  a  commission  of  public  safety,  bring  only, 
according  to  him,  but  auxiliary  means  to  aid  the  government. 
He  terminated  by  crying  out,  "  Liberty  cr  Death .'"  The 
assembly,  electrified,  rose  altogether  in  repeating  this  cry. 
The  effect  produced  by  Lamarque  had  alarmed  us,  and  I 
spoke  in  the  follow  ing  terms  : 

"  In  terminating  his  discourse,  the  last  speaker  calls  for 
Liberty  or  Death.  A  movement  of  unanimous  approbation 
has  been  manifested  among  us.  I  will  also  repeat  those  ad- 
mirable words.  Liberty  or  Death  !  It  is  here  that  liberty  would 
find,  if  required,  her  last  asylum.  .  .  Here  the  suffrages  and 
the  opinions  are  free  ;  and  whatever  may  be  your  deliber- 
ation, no  one  will  suppose  that  the  violence  of  which  this 
place  has  been  the  theatre,  would  give  to  your  vote  a  con- 
trary direction  to  your  real  sentiments.  No,  the  excesses 
to  which  they  have  abandoned  themselves  have  not  influ- 
enced you  in  any  way — fear  and  weakness  are  far  from  our 
arms.  He  who  could  yield  to  those  vulgar  sentiments, 
would  be  unworthy  to  sit  here." 

(A  crowd  of  the  deputies  cried  :  "  Yes,  yes  ;  speak — 
speak.") 

"  The  motion  of  our  colleague  Jourdan  has  been  present- 
ed to  the  commission  of  seven.  I  combated  it  at  that  com- 
mission.    1  ought  and  I  will  combat  it  at  this  tribune. 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,  at  the  crisis  in  which  we 
find  ourselves,  there  is  no  longer  any  thing  to  dissimulate. 
It  is  necessary  to  explain  ourselves  with  frankness ;  this 
sitting  must  show  what  you  desire." 


154  MEMOIRS    OF 

(Fresh  interruptions  from  our  adversaries  informed  me 
that  1  was  in  the  right  road.) 

"  Our  intentions  are  the  same  without  doubt :  we  all  de- 
sire to  save  the  republic ;  but  we  differ  in  the  means  of  sa- 
ving it.  To  find  the  best,  we  must  seek  after  them  with 
calmness — we  must  regulate  the  discussion,  instead  of  en- 
deavouring to  stifle  it.  We  must  enlighten  ourselves  by  a 
mutual  tolerance.  We  must  renounce  on  both  sides,  ima- 
ginary inquietudes.  What  union  can  5''0U  hope  for  among 
the  people,  when  their  representatives  give  them  such  an 
example  ]     But  I  come  to  the  point. 

"  You  want  to  save  the  republic — two  means  are  offered 
to  you. 

"  Some  desire  the  declaration  that  the  country  is  in  dan- 
ger, the  permanence  of  the  councils,  the  call  for  a  new  fed- 
eration, and,  above  all,  a  commission  of  public  safety  more 
active.  Others,  under  the  circumstances  in  which  we  find 
ourselves,  fear  that  all  extraordinary  measures  may  be  fa- 
tal. I  think  like  the  last.  I  declare  that  I  see  to-day  no 
safety  for  France,  but  in  an  intimate  union  between  the 
first  authorities.  A  state  that  is  sharply  menaced  at  the 
exterior,  and  torn  in  the  interior  by  armed  factions,  cannot 
be  saved  but  by  an  energetic  power,  to  which  all  constitu- 
tional latitude  is  assured. 

"  Yes,  in  our  position,  we  must  augment  the  strength  of 
the  executive  power,  or  we  must  change  it.  There  is  no  me- 
dium :  out  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  parties,  you 
would  have  nothing  left  to  do,  but  to  accumulate  to  your- 
selves all  the  powers.  .  .  .  Is  it  there  that  the  safety  of 
the  repubhc  is  to  be  seenf 

(At  these  words  a  violent  agitation  manifested  itself  in 
the  council.     I  had  put  my  finger  in  the  wound.) 

"  Despotism,  say  you  !  .  .  .  .  The  dictatorship !  Who 
would  offer  it !  Wlio  would  dare  to  accept  it  ?  There  ex- 
ists then  among  us  very  cruel  mistrusts.  The  shame  of 
that  proposition,  the  infamy  of  that  yoke,  would  they  find 
here  one  single  man  who  would  not  arm  against  them  with 
the  sword  of  Brutus "?  But  I  have  only  spoken  of  the  dicta- 
torship to  reply  to  those  who  made  use  of  that  word  to  in- 
terrupt me.  It  is  in  vain  that  they  would  put  me  aside 
from  the  question ;  I  despise  the  clamours,  and  I  do  not  fear 
menaces.     I  shall  say  all  I  think. 

"  I  will  say,  that  when  the  enemy  is  at  the  gates,  if  there 
is  an  imperious  necessity  for  the  true  friends  of  the  coun- 
try, it  is  that  of  union.  Shall  I  recall  to  you  the  example 
of  the  ancient  republics  ]  In  the  common  danger  the  re- 
sentments were  suspended.  In  England — (must  that  nation 
be  cited  to  the  French  to  seek  examples  of  wisdom  ?) — in 
England  there  is  no  longer  any  discord  when  the  land  is 
menaced  by  the  enemy-^parties  are  then  at  an  end.    Par- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  155 

liamentary  opposition  sustained  the  principles  of  our  revolu- 
tion against  a  dominating  ministry.  We  threaten  Ireland, 
and  suddenly  Pitt  and  Fox  are  of  accord.  They  are  no 
longer  rivals,  but  fellow-citizens  marching  against  the  inva- 
ders of  their  country.  Well,  then,  representatives,  with  us 
also  safety  is  in  the  union.  Instead  of  thinking  of  chang- 
ing the  system,  we  ought  to-day  to  concentrate  all  the  means 
of  strength  in  the  government ;  we  should  lavish  all  upon  it. 

"There  is  but  one  case  where  we  must  follow  another 
road.  If  the  government  appears  to  you  to  be  guilty  of  trea- 
son, or  you  think  it  unqualified,  then  there  is  nothing  to  be 
done  but  to  judge  and  punish  it,  and  above  all  replace  it.  But, 
indeed,  I  do  not  see  with  what  serious  reproach  you  can 
accuse  the  executive  power.  I  have  not  disguised  my  opin- 
ion against  the  ex-directors — I  have  contributed  to  their  fall. 
....  I  should  act  in  the  same  manner,  if  they  deserved  it, 
against  their  successors. 

"  Permit  me  to  inform  you,  that  there  is  in  the  republic 
an  authority,  which,  to  save  the  state,  we  ought  to  imitate — 
the  calm,  energetic,  and  constitutional  attitude.  If  we  had 
followed  the  example  of  the  council  of  ancients,  our  dangers 
would  have  perhaps  been  less  great. 

"As  for  the  reaction  which  they  talk  of,  the  director}'-  has 
taken  every  means  to  repress  it.  Jt  is  far  from  my  intention 
to  justify  any  reaction;  all  are  culpable  and  fatal,  but  with- 
out action  there  is  no  reaction  ....  and  it  is  the  action 
which  in  the  first  place  it  would  have  been  wise  to  prevent. 

"  The  necessity  of  giving  a  great  latitude  to  the  executive 
power,  m  the  public  dangers,  is  so  evident,  that  those  who 
would  themselves  to-day  overturn  the  directory,  would  be 
obliged  to-morrow  to  re-estabhsh  one  stronger.  Ought  not 
our  predecessors  to  have  obeyed  that  necessity"?  Was  it 
not  to  that  to  which  the  committee  of  the  convention  owed 
its  power,  famous  for  so  many  prodigies  and  so  many  horri- 
ble evils  1  Of  what  use,  in  fact,  would  a  government  be  that 
was  powerless?  What  good  would  an  authority  be  to  which 
contempt  was  attached,  and  that  they  could  dare  insult  with 
impunity,  even  beneath  the  walls  of  its  palace."  (Murmurs.) 

"  Those  murmurs  which  interrupt  me  again,  strike  agreeably 
my  ear.  No  one,  they  tell  me,  will  overturn  the  directory  /  .  .  . 
I  trust  that  no  person  has  such  an  intention.  .  .  But,  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  do  you  not  see  that  the  system 
which  they  propose  to  you,  would  soon  mislead  you,  in  spite 
of  yourselves,  beyond  all  constitutional  limits  I  The  meas- 
ures of  permanence,  of  federation,  of  dangers  proclaimed,  of 
commissions  of  public  safety — are  good,  excellent,  when 
they  want  to  destroy  that  which  exists,  overturn  a  power  of 
which  they  despair.  No  one  will  pretend  that  they  are  the 
means  of  union  and  concord  ;  and  it  is  concord  and  union 
of  which  we  are  in  need. 


156  MEMOIRS    0.F 

"  With  an  executive  power  like  ours,  (I  demand  of  all  my 
colleagues — ought  it  to  expose  us  to  the  terrible  chances  of 
a  revolutionary  authori*:y,  rather  than  unite  around  the  con- 
stitutional authority.)  what  have  we  to  fear  from  the  direc- 
tory 1  It  represses  with  a  firm  hand  the  royalists  and  the 
men  of  the  Rue  du  Bac  ....  Well,  then,  far  from  accu- 
sing it,  let  us  return  it  our  thanks.  In  putting  a  stop  to  the 
reunion  which  served  as  a  den  for  the  factious,  it  has  done 
its  duty  ;  for  the  deposite  of  the  constitution  is  also  confided 
to  the  government.  I  do  not  mean  in  expressing  myself 
thus,  to  condemn  political  societies ;  but  I  approve  of  them 
only  contained  within  the  limits  of  the  1-iw,  and  submitted 
to  the  inspection  of  the  government.  Let  us  beware  more 
than  ever  to-day  of  yieldmg  to  the  revolutionary  temptation. 
Since  no  one  will,  as  in  Praireal,  overturn  the  dire  "tory,  let 
us  fortify  it  b}^  our  confidence,  and  cease  to  listen  to  the  fa- 
bles of  royal  treason,  attributed  to  the  most  illustrious  re- 
publicans. It  is  after  the  consi.ier;.tions  which  I  have  sub- 
mitted to  yon,  that  your  commission  of  seven  has  rejected 
the  propositions  of  our  colleague  Jourdan.  If  they  confine 
themselves  to  the  declaration  that  the  country  is  in  danger 
that  declaration  alone  would  produce  nothing.  If  it  was  the 
prelude  to  extraordinary  measures,  it  would  only  increase 
our  dangers.     I  demand  to  move  the  previous  question." 

The  marks  of  approbation  triven  to  niy  speech  appeared  to 
presage  us  a  victory.  The  Deputies  Quirot  and  Lamarque 
supported  the  motion  of  Jourdan.  Daunon  and  the  President 
Boulai  de  la  Meurthe  combated  it.  The  Jacobin  party  be- 
held the  hope  vanish  which  to  them  had  appeared  certain; 
and  notwithstanding  those  new  violences,  the  discussion  was 
adjourned  to  the  next  day. 

Barras  perceived  at  length  that  he  had  nothing  to  hope,  and 
that  he  had  been  wrong  in  retarding  the  deposing  of  the  min- 
ister of  war.  He  united  with  Sieyes  and  Roger  Ducos  ;  they 
addressed  to  Bernadotte  a  dismission  that  he  had  not  asked 
for,  and  replaced  him  by  the  General  Millet  Mureau.  They 
changed  also  the  central  adnnnistration  of  Paris,  and  held 
themselves  in  readiness  for  the  events  of  the  next  day. 

The  news  of  these  deposings  troubled  the  Jacobins.  The 
crowds  assembled  round  our  palace,  which,  although  com- 
posed of  the  men  of  the  manege  and  the  Fauxbourgs.  had  not 
that  assurance  which  the  sentiment  of  superiority  gives.  .  . 
In  going  to  the  assembly  we  traversed  those  disconcerted 
groups,  and  several  among  us  reproached  them  severely  for 
their  temerity,  and  recommended  them  to  disperse :  some 
threats,  notwithstanding,  were  uttered,  and  some  deputies 
were  insulted.  "  We  will  save  the  country/  in  spite  of  you^'* 
they  cried  on  all  sides  upon  our  passage.  Applauses  un- 
worthy of  him  broke  out  at  the  sight  of  Jourdan,  whom  the 


LUCIEN   BONAPARTE.  157 

deposing  of  Bernadotte   had  exasperated.    Renouncing  all 
moderation  with  them,  and  scarcely  in  his  place,  he  cried, 

"  While  you  deliberate,  they  depose  Bernadotte  and  Le 
Febvre  :  (the  last  was  not  true.)  I  wish  to  believe  that  these 
changes  are  not  the  prelude  of  a  coup  d'etat.  If  that  was 
true,  let  us  swear  that  they  should  never  take  us  from  our 
curule  chairs  till  after  they  had  given  us  death." 

This  oath  whs  pronounced  by  the  whole  assembly  stand- 
ing. Jourdan  was  desirous  of  taking  advantage  of  this  move- 
ment, and  he  again  proposed  the  permanence.  The  pubhc 
galleries  resounded  with  the  most  violent  acclamations. 
The  president  called  to  order  with  severity.  Augereau  then 
made  himself  heard  to  pronounce  a  eulogy  upon  the  18th 
Fructidor,  which  he  had  directed,  and  to  declare  that  the 
actual  situation  not  being  the  same,  the  national  represen- 
tation was  inviolable.  I  repeated  the  declaration  of  Auge- 
reau, and  I  recalled  the  council  to  the  question — "  We  must 
be  also  inviolable  against  a  coup  d'etat,  as  against  the  crowds 
whose  unworthy  clamours  we  hear  from  here.  As  far  as 
these,  we  are  all  of  accord  ;  and  this  unanimous  sentiment 
ought  not  to  influence  in  the  least  our  decision  Let  the 
proposition  of  Jourdan  be  put  to  the  vote."  The  council 
closed  the  discussion ;  and  after  two  trials,  they  proceeded 
in  the  most  profound  silence  to  the  nominal  call. — 171  dep- 
uties voted  for  Jordan;  245  voted  against  him.  We  had 
the  advantage  of  them  thus  by  74  voices.  The  propositions 
were  rejected,  and  the  assembly  rose.  On  quitting  the  hall, 
we  again  found  crowds  of  the  men  of  the  manege,  but  the 
chiefs  had  disappeared. 

That  day,  the  28th  Fructidor,  proved  that  new  revolu- 
tionary experiments  were  odious  to  the  majority  of  the  di- 
rectory, and  to  almost  the  whole  of  the  council  of  ancients. 
It  proved  also  that  the  population  of  Paris  did  not  care  to 
see  the  authority  pass  to  the  Luxemburg  to  the  legislative 
palace.  Sieyes,  strong  in  the  approbation  of  the  people  and 
their  representatives,  could  give  himself  up  to  the  hope  of 
snatching  the  republic  from  the  evils  which  oppressed  it. 
Our  success,  however,  had  only  defended  upon  a  few  votes. 
It  was  not  sufficient  to  have  av(,^at  c  the  abyss  ;  it  was  ne- 
cessary also  to  secure  ourselve.^**""!  \"  the  future.  W'e  felt 
that  inevitable  necessity.  The  Jacetins  had  not  concealed 
from  us  that  they  intended  saving  tl.  a  republic  without  us 
and  in  spite  of  us.  Every  night  there  were  secret  reunions 
of  the  party  whose  exaltation  wjs  fearful.  "  If  you  are  not 
beforehand  with  our  adversaries,"  said  they,  "  an  insurrec- 
tion in  the  Fauxbourgs  will  overthrow  it.  Although  every- 
body talks  about  the  constitution,  no  one  has  any  longer  the 
slightest  confidence  in  it." 

The  question  reduced,  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  to 
this  dilemma — either  let  the  Jacobins  accomplish  the  change 

O 


158  MEMOIRS    OF 

or  act  against  them :  on  both  sides  the  conviction  was  pro- 
found. Jourdan  and  his  friends  thought  they  acted  like  good 
citizens,  in  concentrating  the  power  in  the  council  of  five 
hundred,  and  in  foUov^ing  the  revolutionary  route  open  al- 
ready by  the  laws  of  the  hostages  and  the  forced  loan. 
Their  error  was  deplorable,  but  they  had  no  more  secret  in- 
tentions or  personal  motives  than  we  had  ;  they  did  not  con- 
sider that  the  measures  which  had  succeeded  in  1793  were 
impracticable  at  that  moment,  because  the  mass  of  the  people 
held  those  measures  in  horror.  They  did  not  see  that  the 
resources  of  the  national  domains  no  longer  existed,  and  that 
in  the  impossibility  of  creating  new  assignats,  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  have  recourse  to  credit,  to  the  public  confidence, 
which  trembled  at  the  clamours  of  the  manege,  and  at  the 
idea  even  of  the  discussion  of  the  permanence.  They  did 
not  see,  Jourdan  above  all,  that  to  advance  in  that  terrible 
route,  notwithstanding  the  general  animadversion,  it  was 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  terror,  and  that  his  probity 
condemned  him  beforehand  to  the  scaffold,  which  would  be 
set  up  in  spite  of  him  by  the  forced  results  of  those  princi- 
ples to  which  he  abandoned  himself  with  the  most  fatal  con- 
fidence. I  renewed  my  efforts  with  Jourdan.  If  we  could 
have  united  him  with  us,  with  several  of  his  friends,  I  am 
convinced  that  the  reform  obtained  without  violence  would 
for  a  long  time  have  consolidated  the  republic.  We  offiered 
freely  to  Jourdan  for  him  to  form  a  part  of  the  new  govern- 
ment; a  firmness  of  character,  united  to  great  gentleness  of 
manners,  rendered  him  more  proper  than  any  one  to  enter 
into  the  supreme  magistrature. 

But  there  was  no  concihation  possible.  The  division 
was  complete;  the  menaces  of  the  Jacobins  determined  us 
to  break  with  them  ;  the  triumph  of  their  opinions  appeared 
to  us  to  be  the  greatest  danger  of  the  country.  The  revo- 
lutionary exaggerations  are  in  fact  the  most  ordinary  causes 
of  the  fall  of  republics. 

An  excess  occassions  a  contrary  excess.  The  Jacobins 
have  almost  always  been  the  most  useful  promoters  of 
royalty,  as  the  flattererfj  of  kings  hrive  been  also  often  the 
bhnd  promoters  of  thepos^iublic.  This  comparison  is  per- 
fectly simple,  since  thjV  demagogues  are  the  flatterers  of  the 
multitude.  But  ami^  those  flatterers  of  the  multitude, 
many  of  them  are  [  rfectly  sincere.  Without  doubt  they 
are  equally  as  sincere  as  many  courtiers,  who,  accustomed 
to  contemplate  their  master  through  the  prism  of  absolute 
power,  finish  by  really  admiring  him,  by  almost  even  adoring 
him  as  a  being  of  a  superior  nature.  In  the  same  manner, 
fascinated  and  intoxicated  by  the  popular  favour,  many  of 
the  democrats,  sincere  at  first,  finish  by  suff'ering  themselves 
to  be  carried  away  to  commit  crimes,  even  to  murder.  All 
fanatics  resemble  each  other :  those  of  the  Jacobin  sect, 


i 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  .159 

those  of  the  St.  Barthelemy,  those  of  the  old  man  of  the 
mountain,  were  all  equally  the  prey  of  a  moral  phrensy. 
The  most  sincere  are  the  most  dangerous  ;  they  are  infi- 
nitely more  so  than  the  troop  of  s'atellites  who,  without 
conviction  to  find  food,  hover  like  the  crows  over  all  the 
battle  fields.  When  those  wretches  behold  the  victims  fall 
on  either  side,  whatever  they  may  be,  they  precipitate  upon 
them.  One  may  neglect  a  moment  those  v^lrts  of  all  the 
powers,  but  as  for  the  men  of  heart  and  faith,  it  is  to  them 
we  should  attach  ourselves ;  and  if  we  cannot  convince  and 
enlighten  them,  we  must  combat  them  without  intermission 
when  their  fanaticism  threatens  to  overturn  society. 

Penetrated  with  these  truths,  we  decided  on  being  before- 
hand with  the  Jacobins.  We  resolved  upon  changing  to 
open  hostilities  our  former  circumspection,  and  to  make  the 
reform  succeed  at  any  price,  of  which  they  had  spoken 
vaguely  for  some  time  past ;  and  we  exacted  at  length  that 
Sieyes  should  no  longer  retard  submitting  to  us  the  develop- 
ment of  his  constitutional  ameliorations.  It  was  then  that 
he  must  have  thought  that  the  moment  was  arrived  for  his 
wise  theories  to  be  adopted.  But  France,  although  a  republic 
for  seven  years  past,  was  she  really  ripe  for  political  liberty  ? 
The  future  has  answered  in  the  negative.  But  not  one  of 
us  at  that  time — not  one  of  us — foresaw  the  answer  of  the 
future. 

The  accusations  of  royalism,  launched  without  ceasing 
against  Sieyes,  were  complete  calumnies.  That  statesman 
had  only  republican  views.  1  think  it  my  duty  to  pause  here 
upon  his  project  of  reform,  which  belongs  far  more  to  him 
than  the  charter  preferred  by  Napoleon,  and  voted  by  the 
French  people.  I  shall  terminate  this  first  volume  in  point- 
ing out  the  basis  of  that  project  of  reform.  I  will  show,  in 
the  second  volume,  how,  upon  the  miraculous  arrival  of  the 
hero,  the  national  enthusiasm  was  entirely  submitted  to  his 
magical  influence ;  how  that  torrent,  (too  often  without  ob- 
stacle with  a  generous,  warm-hearted,  but  changeable  peo- 
ple,) after  having  carried  away  with  it  existing  laws,  projects 
of  changes,  even  sanitary  precautions,  precipitated  itself 
towards  the  dictatorship ;  how  that  dictatorship,  the  necessity 
of  which  was  but  too  evident,  but  which  ought  at  least  to 
have  been  temporary,  and  placed  out  of  the  permanent  law, 
was  unfortunately  incorporated  in  that  law  ;  how,  at  length, 
a  conception  sublime  in  the  whole  having  been  mutilated, 
was  transformed,  in  spite  of  us,  into  an  incomplete  code, 
incoherentand  very  different  from  what  Sieyes  had  proposed. 
...  To  each  and  every  one  his  ideas  and  his  work.  Saum 
cuique. 

Sieyes,  from  the  moment  of  the  establishment  of  the  di- 
rectorial charter,  was  persuaded  that  it  was  not  likely  to 
live :  he  did  not  partake  of  our  illusions.    We  have  already 


160  MEMOIRS    OF 

said  that  he  was  so  deeply  penetrated  with  the  faults  of  that 
charter  that  he  would  not  accept  of  a  place  in  the  directory. 
He  yielded  afterwards  to  our  entreaties,  (in  the  year  7,)  but 
in  the  hope  of  a  legislative  reform,  desired  by  many  of  the 
deputies,  all  disposed  to  second  it.  These  luminous  coni- 
niunications  made  every  day  fresh  adepts;  and  I  glory  in 
having  been  one  of  the  most  ardent.  They  estabhshed  be- 
fore ail,  the  necessity  of  concentrating  the  executive  power, 
of  replacing  the  five  directors,  elected  for  five  years,  and  not 
re-elective — by  three  consuls  elected  for  ten  years,  and  re- 
elective.  At  that  epoch  there  was  no  question  of  a  great 
elector  of  the  republic.  It  was  after  the  return  from  Egypt 
and  for  Napoleon,  that  the  supreme  magistrature  was  pro- 
posed and  so  ill  received.  I  find  nothing  in  my  notes  rela- 
tive to  it,  before  the  year  8.  The  three  consuls  of  Sieyes 
were  to  be  equal  in  rights  ;  and  the  annual  presidence  to  be 
exercised  in  turn  by  each  of  them.  There  was  no  question 
then,  either  of  a  tribunal  or,  above  all,  of  a  mute  legislative 
body  ! ! !  But  let  us  proceed  in  order  in  exposing  the  basis 
of  the  primitive  project  of  Brumaire. 

1st.   The  Division  of  the  three  Powers. 

The  legislative  powers,  executive  and  judicial,  should  be, 
as  far  as  possible,  independent  of  each  other,  and  always 
serve  reciprocally  as  a  barrier ;  without  the  division  of 
those  powers  there  is  no  political  liberty.  Their  re-union 
constitutes  despotism.  In  this  sense  the  conventional  gov- 
ernment was  of  the  same  sort  as  that  of  Louis  IV,  and  the 
republican  government  was  the  most  despotic  of  the  two, 
since  the  powers  were  more  concentrated  in  the  great 
assembly,  than  in  the  great  king.  The  parliaments,  the 
clergy,  the  provincial  states,  were  poor  barriers  for  him 

who  said — /  am  the  state But  the  convention  had. 

no  barriers  of  any  sort. 

2d.  Division  of  the  Legislative  Power. 

The  division  of  three  powers  is  then  to  assure  our  liberty. 
Let  us  apply  that  theory,  and  seek  for  the  equilibrium  of 
those  powers.  We  shall  find  ourselves  stopped  by  the  im- 
mense preponderance  of  one  of  the  two.  What  equilibrium 
can  be  established  between  him  who  makes  the  laws,  and 
those  who  execute  them.  That  which  is  out  of  all  propor- 
tion, can  never  be  put  in  proportion,  except  in  being  weak- 
ened ;  that  is  to  say,  by  being  divided.  It  is  then  the  great 
power,  the  sole,  which  vigorously  merits  the  name.  It  is 
the  legislative  power  which  should  be  divided  to  avoid 
despotism,  and  here  we  are  brought  by  the  application  to 
separate  the  formation  of  the  laws  of  their  sanction.  Here 
we  are  brought  to  the  necessity  of  two  chambers. 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  161 

3d.  Elective    Chamber — Universal   Suffrage — Direct    and 
Indirect  Popular  Censure. 

All  society  is  composed  of  individuals  who  are  proprie- 
tors, and  others  who  are  not.  It  carries,  then,  with  itself 
two  opposite  wants,  that  of  movement  and  that  of  stability. 
Those  who  find  themselves  well  off,  desire  to  remain  as  they 
are ;  those  who  are  bad  off,  desire  to  change  their  position. 
That  double  state  of  human  society,  such  as  God  has  made 
it,  exacts  imperiously  the  same  state  in  the  legislation.  One 
of  the  two  chambers,  representative  of  the  movement,  ought 
to  be  elective  and  frequently  renewed.  The  other  cham- 
ber, representative  of  stability,  ought  to  be  immoveable. 
To  the  first  belongs  the  proposition  and  the  compiling  of 
the  projects  of  law ;  to  the  second  belongs  the  sanction  or 
the  rejection  of  those  projects.  These  two  chambers,  to 
constitute  a  good  government,  should  be  equally  powerful ; 
and  each  of  them  to  be  powerful,  should  lean  upon  its  prin- 
ciple, and  be  endowed  with  all  the  strength  derived  from  it. 

The  -elective  principle  being  that  of  the  chamber  of  the 
movement,  let  us  examine  this  principle.  The  exercise  of 
the  rights  of  each  ought  not  to  be  limited  but  for  the  general 
interest ;  and  all  the  members  of  a  society  possess  in  prin- 
ciple the  same  rights.  The  universal  suffrage  is  then  the 
rule,  and  the  restriction  to  that  rule  can  only  be  the  excep- 
tion. That  exception  would  be  then  tyrannical,  if  it  is  not 
indispensable.  For  every  man  may  usefully,  without  incon- 
venience and  without  difficulty,  vote  in  his  primary  assem- 
bly to  choose  the  public  functionaries  of  his  commune. 
Those  functions  touch  very  nearly  the  interests,  the  wel- 
fare, and  the  safety  of  each  inhabitant,  rich  or  poor.  Those 
inhabitants  all  know  one  another ;  they  are  then  capable  of 
choosing  amongst  them,  those  who  merit  their  confidence. 
They  should  all  then  co-operate  in  this  choice.  The  uni- 
versal suffrage,  direct  in  the  commune,  is  then  just  and 
suitable ;  and  there  is  no  reasonable  motive  for  depriving 
any  one  whatever. 

Besides  that  justice  of  universal  suffrage  is  felt  by  all, 
since  the  periodical  papers  have  carried  the  declarations  of 
the  rights  of  man  and  of  the  citizen,  even  to  the  lowest 
ranks  of  the  non-proprietors.  In  our  social  state,  many 
then  may  still  be  in  want  of  bread ;  but  no  one  can  be  in 
want  of  political  aliment  to  irritate  his  hunger  .  .  .  The 
accession,  therefore,  to  the  affairs  of  the  country  is  become 
a  necessity  of  our  epoch ;  and  as  long  as  that  necessity  is 
not  satisfied,  the  revolution  will  not  be  appeased.  The 
human  mind  marches  towards  this  end,  and  it  will  attain  it 
in  spite  of  all  the  obstacles.  That  consideration  of  the  fact, 
is  still  more  decisive  for  the  legislator  than  the  evidence  of 
the  right.     The  political  emancipation  having  become  an 


162  MEMOIRS    OP 

universal  instinct,  if  they  feel  a  repugnance  for  it,  they  must 
resig^n  themselves  if  they  wish  to  re-constitute  something 
durable  ...  If  not  to  the  irresistible  interrogation,  of  what 
is  the  third  estate  ? — will  soon  succeed  the  interrogation,  n©t 
less  irresistible,  what  is  the  non-proprietor  ? 

And  indeed,  if  v/e  study  the  annals  of  the  European  civi- 
lization, we  shall  read  upon  the  brightest  page  of  ancient 
history,  that  inscription  of  christianism — Liberty  of  the 
slaves !  The  brightest  page  of  intermediate  history  offers 
that  inscription  of  philosophy,  enfranchisement  of  the  serfs  ! — 
and  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  contemporary  history 
inscribed  in  its  turn  upon  the  brightest  page,  emancipation  of 
the  non-'proprietors !  That  third  idea,  emitted  without  a  pal- 
liative in  the  code  of  Condorcet,  but  immediately  effaced 
under  the  blood  and  the  dirt  of  1793,  was  revived,  and 
wisely  put  in  practice  by  the  legislators  of  Brumaire.  It 
traversed  in  silence  the  empire  and  the  restoration.  It 
arises  to-day  more  powerful  and  more  ripe  ....  Glory 
to  the  government  sufficiently  enhghtened  to  preside  with 
courage  over  this  third  development  of  religion  and  philo- 
sophy. I  will  here  treat  of  that  great  question  of  the  politi- 
cal rights  to  be  accorded  to  the  non-proprietors,  and  refute, 
article  by  article,  the  9th  and  10th  Chapters  of  a  work  enti- 
tled "  The  two  Years  Reign,"  by  Alphonse  Pepin.  But  I 
will  refer  that  refutation  to  my  second  volume,  where  it 
will  naturally  be  brought  by  my  legislative  discussions,  upon 
the  lists  of  notability.  Let  us  be  contented  in  observing  to- 
day that  until  Brumaire,  notwithstanding  all  the  declarations 
of  the  rights  they  had  been  fearful  of  granting,  the  right  of 
titizenship  to  the  poorest  and  most  numerous  classes,  they 
fiad  confined  themselves  to  enfranchising  the  burghers  of 
file  town  and  country  in  exacting  a  quit-rent  of  several 
days'  work,  or  revenue  of  several  hundreds  of  pounds. 
Instead  of  equally  fortifying  the  two  chambers,  they  had 
equally  weakened  them,  in  admitting  to  the  democratic 
election  but  a  minority  of  the  society,  and  in  leaving  the 
conservative  chamber  without  means  of  resistance  against 
that  bastard  democracy.  Our  divers  essays  of  electoral 
cense,  renewed  since,  and  more  or  less  enlarged,  are  equal- 
ly insufficient ;  for  the  question  is  not  the  imitating  the 
emancipation  of  such  or  such  a  class  ;  but  to  dare  to  gene- 
ralize it,  and  to  know  how  to  do  it,  without  overturning.  It 
is  in  that  view,  that  after  having  consecrated  the  direct  ex- 
ercise of  the  universal  suffrage  in  the  commune,  we  submit- 
ted that  exercise  out  of  the  commune  to  several  degrees  of 
delegation.  As  soon  as  it  was  necessary  to  name  them  to 
functions  that  included  a  district,  a  department,  the  whole 
republic,  we  established  the  necessity  of  modifying  the 
principle.  How,  in  that  case,  could  they,  without  inconve- 
nience, apply  the  universal,  direct  suffrage  1    How  should 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  163 

five  or  six  millions  of  men  understand  one  another  suffi- 
ciently to  exercise  this  right  without  intermediates  ]  How- 
should  citizens,  the  greatest  part  of  whom  have  never  been 
out  of  their  district,  make  a  good  choice  beyond  the  limits 
where  their  habitudes  retain  them!  Can  they  know  the 
aptness  of  such  or  such  a  citizen  for  the  high  places  of  the 
administration,  of  the  judicature,  of  the  elected  chamber! 
.  .  .  The  greatest  part  of  those  voters  have,  most  probably, 
never  seen  the  candidates,  and  perhaps  scarcely  heard 
speak  of  them  ....  Experience  as  well  as  reflection 
shows  that  direct  voting  in  such  a  case  would  be  difficult 
and  dangerous.  Here  the  exception  becomes  applicable. 
Society  will  find  the  utility  and  convenience  of  delegating 
its  power  to  electors ;  and  the  universal  suffrage,  direct  in 
the  commune,  would  be  indirect  (more  or  less)  for  the  high 
functions. 

Indirect  for  the  high  functions,  1  grant  it.  But  all  the 
citizens,  without  exception,  should  delegate  this  right  of 
suffrage,  and  all  can  receive  the  delegation  ....  all  ..  . 
admitting  the  smallest  cense,  is  to  acknowledge  two  nations 
in  one  nation.  When  two  people,  enemies,  the  Franks  and 
the  Gauls,  inhabited  Gaul,  the  feodal  legislation  only  con- 
firmed the  existing  fact.  But  to-day,  that  the  existing  fact 
is  the  unity,  is  it  not  absurd  to  seek  to  destroy  that  unity  by 
the  legislation  of  the  electoral  cense  1 

The  indirect  suffrage  is  the  more  perfect,  being  nearer  to 
the  direct  suffrage  from  whence  it  springs.  If  the  electors 
are  constrained  to  choose  the  high  functionaries  among 
themselves,  it  is  evident  that  the  delegation  would  be  less 
absolute.  For  that  restriction,  the  electors  chosen  by  all, 
and  amongst  them,  would  be  at  the  same  time  the  delegates 
and  the  candidates  of  the  direct  universal  suffrage.  After 
these  popular  considerations,  Sieyes  established  ; 

1st.  That  each  primary  assembly,  composed  of  every 
Frenchman  that  was  of  age,  should  choose  in  its  bosom  a 
tenth  of  its  number  as  notables  of  the  commune.  It  should 
then  choose,  amidst  those  notables,  the  public  functionaries 
of  that  commune. 

2d.  The  notables  of  all  the  communes  of  a  district,  united 
in  the  chief  place  of  the  under-prefecture,  should  name  the 
tenths  amongst  them  as  notables  of  the  district ;  they  should 
afterward  choose  in  this  tenth  the  public  functionaries  of 
that  district. 

3d.  The  notables  of  all  the  districts  of  a  department  united 
in  the  chief  place  of  the  prefecture,  should  name  amongst 
them  the  tenth  of  their  number  as  notables  of  the  depart- 
ment. They  should  then  choose  in  this  tenth  the  public 
functionaries  of  the  department. 

4th.  The  re-union  of  all  the  lists  of  notables  of  the  depart- 
ments (arising  to  nearly  six  thousand  names)  would  form 


164  MEMOIRS    OF 

the  great  national  list,  in  which  they  should  choose  the 
members  of  the  tribunal  of  cassation,  the  deputies,  the 
senators,  and  the  consuls. 

Here,  then,  is  the  system  which  they  have  denied,  calum- 
niated and  misconstrued !  That  was,  they  said,  very  com- 
plicated. Without  doubt,  nothing  is  more  comphcated  than 
real  liberty  in  a  great  society  accustomed  to  servitude. 
P-ut,  in  requital,  nothing  is  more  simple  than  the  despotism 
of  a  man,  or  of  an  assembly. 

Have  they  at  least  established  some  better  system  than 
our  universal  suffrage,  direct  and  indirect  1  What  have  they 
discovered  after  thirty-six  years  of  experience,  of  criti- 
cisms, of  doctrines  and  polished  pleadings?  They  have 
found  a  cense  to  be  eligible,  and  a  cense  to  be  an  elector ! 
That  is  to  say,  to  combine  the  interests  of  the  proprietors 
and  the  non-proprietors !  ! !  And  they  flatter  themselves, 
that  in  excluding  from  the  forum  the  majority  of  the  nation, 
to  have  triumphed  over  the  difficulty  .  .  .  They  have  done 
nothing  but  thus  perpetuate  the  trouble  and  discontentment, 
and  that  state  of  sickly  transition  has  no  other  term  possible 
than  the  electoral  reform. 

Some  adversaries  of  the  lists  of  notables  of  Brumaire, 
have  said  that  these  lists  disinherited  the  people.  But  six 
millions  of  men  voted  them  in  the  primary  assemblies,  and 
they  delegated  only,  but  in  a  limited  manner,  a  part  of  their 
right  of  suffrage  to  six  hundred  thousand  notables,  electors 
and  candidates  of  the  universahty  of  the  French  people  ; 
and  now  it  is  not  the  universality,  but  only  a  part  of  the 
population,  which  scarcely  names  two  hundred  thousand 
electors !  Our  system  of  notability  was  then  far  more 
popular  than  all  your  electoral  systems.  The  senate,  they 
say,  chose  the  high  functionaries  and  the  deputies  .... 
That  prerogative  was  but  momentary ;  it  was  to  diminish 
and  expire  as  soon  as  the  people  were  accustomed,  and  had 
an  affection  for  the  exercise  of  those  rights  of  election. 
Such  was  the  plan  of  Sieyes.  The  universal  suffrage  direct 
was  to  extend  with  favorable  circumstances ;  in  short,  that 
the  republican  manners  taken  root  amongst  us,  the  primary 
assemblies,  or  at  least  the  notables  of  the  communes,  could 
have  named  progressively  the  functionaries  of  the  district 
and  the  department.  As  for  the  deputies,  Ave  left,  for  a 
time,  their  choice  to  the  senate,  that  the  legislative  author- 
ity, in  the  first  age  of  the  consular  charter,  was  reserved  for 
the  men  equally  opposed  to  royahsm  and  democracy.  The 
choice  of  the  senate  could  not,  moreover,  fall  but  upon  the 
notables  of  the  department ;  that  is  to  say,  upon  the  candi- 
dates of  the  people.  But  with  time  the  right  of  electing  the 
deputies  might  pass  successively  from  the  senate  to  the  six 
thousand  notables  of  the  departments,  and  then  to  the  sixty 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  166 

thousand  notables  of  the  districts  ;  then  at  length  to  the  six 
hundred  thousand  notables  of  the  communes. 

The  people,  moreover,  even  at  the  beginning  of  the 
organization,  exercised  really  an  universal  censure  upon 
all  the  public  functionaries,  which  modified  wisely  the  right 
of  delegation  of  the  divers  degrees  of  notability,  as  well  as 
the  temporary  prerogative  of  the  senate,  an  important  con- 
sideration, which  has  passed  away  amidst  us  almost  unper- 
ceived.  In  effect,  every  three  years  the  primary  assemblies 
renewed  the  lists  of  six  hundred  thousand  communal  nota- 
bles. The  public  functions  could  only  be  filled  by  those 
who  were  maintained  upon  those  lists ;  it  followed  that 
every  Frenchman  had  not  only  the  right  of  direct  suffrage 
in  his  commune,  but  that  he  had  also,  every  three  years, 
the  right  of  direct  censure  upon  the  public  men  of  all  de- 
grees. We  have  already  said  that  the  great  concessions 
made  to  the  democracy  would  be  progressively  increased ; 
but  such  as  they  were,  it  was  still  an  immense  progress ; 
it  was  a  political  liberty  superior  to  that  of  the  constitution 
of  the  year  3,  and  many  other  constitutions. 

Thus,  (if  I  may  be  permitted  to  repeat  it,)  six  millions 
of  citizens,  naming  in  a  direct  manner  the  functionaries  of 
their  conmiunes,  choosing  six  hundred  thousand  notables, 
all,  at  the  same  time,  electors  and  candidates  for  the  other 
functions  ;  and  every  Frenchman,  whose  name  was  not 
preserved  upon  those  triennial  lists  of  popular  candidates, 
became  ineligible  for  all  magistrature.  Thus  the  question 
of  the  universal  suffrage  applied  to  a  great  and  old  society, 
was  decided  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner.  I  hope  that 
the  constitutional  future,  which  approaches  for  all  the  peo- 
ple, will  appreciate  better  than  our  contemporaries  have 
done,  that  wise  institution  of  our  great  civilian.  In  France, 
above  all,  the  political  education  has  made  too  great  a  pro- 
gress, for  some  years  past,  for  the  electoral  reform  not  to 
bring  about  very  shortly  the  universal  voting  of  several 
degrees. 

Ath. — Unremovable  Chamber — Personal  Aristocracy — Sen- 
atorial Absorption. 

The  chamber  w^hich  represents  the  necessity  of  stability, 
should  be  unremovable.  The  maintenance  of  the  existing 
order  being  especially  confided,  it  must  be  at  all  times  poAv- 
erful,  and  more  powerful  after  a  popular  revolution,  w^here 
the  opinions,  having  impetuously  wandered  even  to  the  end 
of  the  democratical  descent,  have  far  outmarched  the  point 
where  they  should  have  stopped.  Immediately  after  these 
profound  struggles,  the  legislator,  to  reorganize  society, 
should  give  a  motion  to  the  conservative  power,  an  action 
SO  much  the  greater,  the  power  being  in  momentary  dis- 


166  MEMOIRS    OP 

credit.  That  action  can  only  spring  from  the  attribution 
given  it  by  the  constitution,  or  from  great  riches,  the  influ- 
ence of  which  may,  to  a  certain  point,  make  up  for  the  law. 
We  are  not  ignorant,  that  a  magistrature  of  great  proprie- 
tors, (without  being  hereditary,  as  it  ought  to  be  in  a  mod- 
erate monarchy,)  but  only  during  life,  and  seated  upon  a 
very  high  raised  cense,  would  have  been  a  good  combina- 
tion for  the  high  chamber  of  our  republic  ;  there  were  no 
longer  in  France  but  very  few  great  proprietors,  and  they 
were  almost  all  of  them  hostile  to  the  new  regime.  That 
element  of  order,  not  being  at  our  disposal,  we  could  not 
supply  it  but  in  augmenting  the  attributions  of  the  conserv- 
ative body.  This  is  the  reason  why  Sieyes  proposed  to 
confide  so  much  power  to  the  senate.  The  sanction  of  the 
laws,  the  nomination  of  the  senators  and  consuls,  and  the 
supreme  right  of  absorbing  the  consuls,  was  to  form  the 
permanent  attribution  of  the  unremovable  chamber,  the 
election  of  the  deputies  and  the  high  functionaries  was  its 
provisory  attribution.  So  much  authority  was  not  more 
than  was  requisite  for  this  patriciate  of  the  republic  during 
life,  which  might  resist  the  executive  power  always  inva- 
ding, and  to  the  democratic  chamber  still  very  unquiet. 
Nevertheless,  that  patrician  magistrature  sprang  also  from 
the  popular  election,  sole  source  of  legitimate  powers,  since 
its  members,  like  the  consuls,  were  taken  exclusively  in 
the  list  of  the  six  thousand  notables  of  the  departments,  to 
which  every  Frenchman  might  arrive  by  the  confidence 
alone  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  senators  were  also  ineli- 
gible for  every  other  public  function,  that  they  might  not 
have  any  personal  advantage  to  expect  from  the  govern- 
ment. 

Notwithstanding  so  many  attributions,  was  the  senate  in  a 
condition  to  guarantee  the  republic  from  the  ambition  of  the 
executive  power  ]  .  .  .  A  govern»nent  of  three  magistrates, 
re-eligible  every  ten  years,  substituted  for  five  magistrates 
elected  only  for  five  years,  who  could  not  be  re-elected, 
appeared  still  to  be  a  great  deal  too  strong  for  many  suspi- 
cious minds.  Sieyes  hesitated  whether  or  not  to  limit  the 
authority  of  the  consuls  to  five  years  ;  but  it  appeared  pre- 
ferable to  him,  not  to  limit  too  much  the  time,  and  to  estab- 
lish a  repression  always  existing  for  cases  of  public  danger. 
Although  the  consulate;  totally  a  stranger  to  the  legislative 
and  judiciary  powers,  had  only  the  number  three,  in  com- 
mon with  the  Roman  triumvirate,  it  was  quite  evident  that  it 
was  there  that  most  probably  some  day  might  spring  forth 
tyranny.  It  was  then  against  that  probability,  above  all,  that 
the  legislator  was  right  in  directing  the  conservative  power. 

In  some  ancient  states,  and  in  the  middle  age,  they  ban- 
ished the  citizens  whose  power  they  feared. — Ostracism, 
exile  ob  nimiam  potestatem,  had  appeared  the  sole  remedy 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  167 

against  that  mortal  malady  of  the  republics ;  but  ostracism 
had  two  faults,  which  balanced  the  advantages.  1st,  It  was 
in  the  highest  degree  unjust,  since  it  punished  an  influence 
acquired  perhaps  by  civic  virtues.  Not  only  did  it  deprive 
the  state  of  Aristides  and  Themistocles,  but  it  inflicted  on 
Aristides  and  Themistocles  the  most  cruel  and  the  longest 
torture  of  human  life.  .  .  .  Exile.  .  .  .  Exile  .  .  .  without  a 
term  .  .  .  far  from  one's  country.  The  fear  of  suffering  that 
horrible  torment,  might  it  not  precipitate  a  feeble  mind  into 
the  career  of  usurpation?  ...  If  any  thing  could  ever  excuse 
tyranny  and  civil  war,  was  it  not  the  terrible  sword  of  exile, 
suspended  over  the  head  of  a  citizen  sufliciently  illustrious 
to  excite  envy.  The  injustice  of  ostracism  went  evidently 
in  that  respect  against  the  aim  of  the  legislator. 

2d,  Ostracism,  punishment  imposed  without  judgment, 
was  it  at  least  imposed  by  an  authority  calm,  enlightened 
and  deliberate  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  crowd  who 
pronounced  in  the  agitation  of  the  forum,  alwa37S  open  to 
the  poison  of  hatred,  to  the  prejudices  of  the  moment,  to 
the  seductions  of  intrigue.  The  multitude  condemned  with- 
out appeal — the  areopagus  was  powerless. 

How,  then,  ameliorate  ostracism  1  How  preserve  this 
heroic  remedy  of  the  republics  in  stripping  it  of  its  injus- 
tice, and  in  giving  to  those  victims  of  glory  a  guarantee 
against  the  caprices  of  envy]  Sieyes  proposed  confiding 
the  right  of  absorption  to  the  same  body  who  sanctioned 
the  laws,  and  whose  unremovability,  high  position,  and  in- 
terest of  conservation,  rendered  more  useful  and  less  dan- 
gerous the  exercise  of  an  extraordinary  censure.  By  this 
right  of  absorption  the  senate  could  absorb ;  that  is  to  say, 
call  into  its  own  bosom  the  consul  who  appeared  danger-^ 
ous  to  the  liberty  of  the  republic.  The  consul  absorbed, 
ceased  at  the  same  moment  his  functions,  and  became  ipso 
facto  member  of  the  senate.  The  statesman  suspected  was 
not  thus  condemned  to  drag  on  the  remainder  of  his  life 
far  from  his  countrymen ;  he  was  only  reduced  to  yield 
to  another  the  post  he  occupied.  He  had  not  to  choose 
between  revolt  and  torment,  of  which  the  ministers  and 
deputies,  quietly  seated  at  their  domestic  hearths,  do  not 
all  appear  to  understand  the  cruelty.     If  the  suspicions  of 

the  senate  were  just the  absorption  saved  the  state, 

and  preserved  from  crime  him  who  was  about  to  commit  it. 
If  the  suspicions  were  unjust  .  .  .  the  absorbed  quitted  only 
his  place  for  another,  and  he  found  himself  seated  for  the 
rest  of  his  days  upon  the  curule  chair.  Certainly  such  an 
ostracism  had  no  longer  any  thing  odious  in  it.  Sieyes  had 
completely,  admirably  resolved  the  problem. 

But  the  absorption  could  deprive  the  repubhc  of  the  ser- 
vices of  a  great  citizen  in  the  government :  a  republic  does 
not  know  any  necessary  man. 


168  MEMOIRS    Of 

It  is,  without  doubt,  superfluous  to  repeat  here,  that  I 
speak  of  the  project  of  reform  that  Sieyes  had  meditated, 
that  we  had  approved  of  with  a  profound  enthusiasm,  and 
that  he  would  have  given  to  France  if -he  had  been  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  have  done  it,  A  part  of  these  ideas 
were  preserved  in  the  constitution  of  the  year  8 ;  but  what 
is  a  system  disjointed  and  divided  on  all  sides  1  It  is  suffi- 
cient for  one  single  article  to  be  omitted  or  added  to  spoil 
the  whole.  The  conservative  senate,  deprived  of  its  right 
of  absorption,  was  only  able  to  preserve  itself.  What  shall 
we  say  of  the  senators  called,  against  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  their  institution,  to  all  the  first  employments  of  the 
governments  ...  I  will  only  speak  here,  then,  of  the  primi- 
tive project ;  the  modification  of  that  project  will  occupy  us 
hereafter. 

Without  the  return  of  Napoleon,  would  our  republican 
reform  have  succeeded  ]  .  .  .  Probably  we  should  have  been 
overcome  by  the  party  of  Jourdan.  I  think  that  this  unex- 
pected return  preserved  France  from  a  repetition  of  the 
terror,  which  Jourdan  and  several  of  his  friends  would  have 
in  vain  attempted  to  moderate.  There  were  more  chances 
against  us  than  for  us  ;  but  the  fear  of  a  new  revolutionary 
government  merited  that  we  should  expose  our  heads  .... 
We  should  only  have  kept  them  a  few  days  longer  if  the 
times  of  1793  liad  returned  ! 

It  is  very  probable  that  our  reform  would  not  have  suc- 
ceeded, precisely  in  consequence  of  what  was  the  best  of  it 
— the  senatorial  supremac)'".  A  body  clothed  with  so  much 
power,  was  too  repugnant  to  the  prevailing  opinion,  to  that 
vague  and  exaggerated  horror  of  the  aristocracy — miserable 
prejudice  which  opposed,  as  it  opposes  still,  to  the  amelior- 
ation of  our  political  institutions.  They  dared  then,  still 
less  than  they  dare  now,  brave  the  unpopularity  which  is 
attached  to  the  idea  of  a  patrician.  But  let  not  good  citi- 
zens persist  in  confounding,  in  one  common  reprobation,  the 
feodal  aristocracy  and  the  patrician  magistrature.  When  a 
conquering  people,  despoilers  of  a  conquered  people,  organ- 
ize a  feodality,  which,  separating  the  two  races  in  masters 
and  slaves,  assure  to  one  all  the  rights,  and  to  the  other  all 
the  servitudes,  such  a  regime,  terrible  abuse  of  strength, 
profound  line  of  demarcation,  dug  by  the  sword  between 
two  people,  is  an  odious  tyranny,  against  which  the  op- 
pressed cannot  lance  too  many  maledictions.  That  here- 
ditary aristocracy,  born  of  the  violences  of  the  conquest, 
even  was  it  modified  as  in  England,  was  it  even  with  time 
sufficiently  identified  with  the  pubhc  liberties  to  have  be- 
come their  most  solid  guarantee,  it  is  natural  to  suppose, 
notwithstanding  that  transformation,  that  a  republican  state 
would  repulse  all  hereditary  privileges  of  tribes  and  fami- 
lies.    But  a  patrician  and  personal  magistrature  is  quite  of 


ItJCIEN    BONAPARTE.  169 

another  nature  ;  it  is  indispensable,  as  an  intermediate  and 
conservative  body,  to  every  liberal  government ;  without 
that  magistrature,  equally  placed  out  of  the  movement  of 
the  administration,  and  out  of  the  movement  of  popular 
election,  the  government  would  soon  become  absolute, 
whetlicr  it  was  in  the  democratic  body  or  not.  Besides, 
without  repeating  here  what  the  civilians  of  all  times  have 
said,  in  all  langunges,  let  us  content  ourselves  with  observ- 
ing the  contradictions  which  those  demagogical  theories 
present,  and  their  application.  The  progress,  they  say, 
consists  in  the  absence  of  all  aristocrat] cal  principles  in 
political  equality  !  .  .  .  .  But  where  is,  then,  that  society 
without  aristocracy,  without  political  inequalities  1  Be- 
tween the  chief  and  the  crowd  there  must  be  necessarily 
secondary  chiefs.  What  that  reunion  of  secondary  chiefs 
receives  of  power,  is  favorable  to  the  public  liberties,  since 
that  power  is  detached  from  those  of  the  government.  If 
it  is  not  a  senate  which  you  place  between  the  chief  and 
the  people,  you  will  have  a  camarilla  of  courtiers  who  will 
place  themselves.  You  may  prefer  the  aristocracy  of  the 
valets  to  that  of  the  political  magistrates  ;  you  may  confide 
the  choice  to  a  bureaucratic,  ever  servile,  (the  most  hideous 
of  all  intermediate  authorities,)  sooner  than  to  an  unremov- 
able body  of  independent  men.  But  notwithstanding  all,  at 
length  an  pristocracy,  hereditary  or  personal,  independent 
or  servile,  has  governed,  governs,  and  will  govern  human 
socitties.  Among  the  savages,  the  strongest,  those  who 
have  killed  the  most  enemies,  and  the  oldest  of  the  tribe, 
are  they  not  the  aristocrats  oi  the  desert  1  In  the  United 
States,  do  not  the  elective  privileges  consecrate  the  aristo- 
cracy of  money  ]  And  is  it  not  also  by  the  most  hideous 
irregularity,  that  in  several  states  of  that  fine  country  they 
do  not  yet  treat  as  their  fellow-beings  the  fellow-citizen, 
the  Christian  in  whom  there  remains  the  smallest  trace  of 
the  proscribed  color  ?  And  with  us,  those  who  pay  the 
cense  of  elector  and  eligibility,  do  not  they  belong  to  the 

privileged  classes'? Is  it  equality  for  tw^o  hundred 

thousand  citizens  to  be  over  six  millions  of  Frenchmen  ! 
And  can  they,  in  such  a  state,  vaunt  of  having  known  how 
to  conciliate  the  monarchy  with  liberty  and  equality,  with- 
out resembling  those  Roman  Augurs,  whose  greatest  merit 
consisted  when  they  encountered  each  other  in  public,  was 
the  being  able  to  keep  a  serious  countenance. 

In  the  project  of  Sieyes,  the  aristocratic  element  had  been 
reduced  to  its  best  republican  expression;  it  had  been  pop- 
ularized; it  neither  supported  itself  entirely  upon  great 
property  still  hostile,  nor  upon  industry  exposed  to  too 
many  chances  to  be  a  solid  basis ;  nor  even  upon  know- 
ledge, which  is  not  always  the  friend  of  order :  but  it  sup- 
ported itself  upon  a  strength  to  which  knowledge,  industry, 


170  MEMOIRS    OF 

and  propertj^  contributed  at  the  same  time.  It  was  supported 
upon  the  general  confidence  manifested  at  several  periods. 
To  arrive  at  their  high  positions,  the  great  notables  of  the 
departments  were  to  exhaust  all  the  degrees  of  election ;  a.ad 
that  new  basis  of  influence  was  more  solid,  and,  above  all, 
more  liberal,  than  all  the  rest,  since  it  did  not  admit  of  the 
privileges  of  the  burghers ;  a  larger  privilege,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, less  odious,  than  that  of  the  ancient  noblesse,  but 
which,  however,  does  not  accord  any  better  with  the  decla- 
ration of  the  rights.  Even  in  the  constitution  of  Brumaire, 
such  as  it  was  modified  and  voted,  there, were  six  millions 
of  citizens  over  six  millions  of  Frenchmen;  for,  rich  or 
poor,  all  had  the  right  of  suffrage.  If  since,  by  successive 
pebliscites,  (decrees  of  the  people,)  they  have  perverted  all, 
who  is  to  blame  1  You  and  your  fathers,  who  would  have 
it  so  ;  but  not  to  those  who  desired  other  things,  nor  to  those 
to  whom  you  reproach  the  imperial  monarchy  with  as  much 
injustice  as  if  you  reproached  the  constitution  of  '93  to  the 
constituents  of  1789  ;  not  to  those  who  renounced  not  their 
dream  of  a  wise,  senatorial,  and  consular  republic,  until  after 
the  repeated  expression  of  the  national  will,  really  and  sin- 
cerely manifested.  That  will,  precipitating  itself  afresh 
toward  the  hereditary  system,  and  precipitating  solely  from 
horror  of  Jacobinism,  left  to  sensible  minds  no  other  aim  to 
obtain  but  intermediate  institutions  proportionate  to  royalty, 
and  sufficiently  strong  to  moderate  it.  Every  Frenchman, 
in  resigning  himself  to  the  sovereign  vote  of  France,  accom- 
plishes a  sacred  duty.  Some  men  of  Brumaire  had,  without 
doubt,  more  than  resignation  ....  But  honour  to  those 
who  have  retired  or  resigned  without  baseness. 

But  might  it  not  be  sni;;...  upon  hearmg  some  pamphleteers, 
that  amongst  our  ad\'3rs:iries  of  St.  Cloud,  amongst  tiie 
most  ardent  Jacobins,  tliere  was  not  one  who  had  rallied 
around  the  monarchy  I  .  .  .  But  not  to  speak  except  of  the 
most  illustrious,  Jourdan  de  Fleurus  was  subject  of  the  em- 
peror and  marshal  of  the  empire  !  Bernadotte  did  not  with- 
draw either  before  the  name  of  subject  in  France,  anymore 
than  before  a  foreign  sceptre !  .  .  .  .  And  Lafayette  !  .  .  . 
Is  it  a  republic  or  a  monarchy  which  sprung  from  the  dicta- 
ture  of  July,  1830  ?  .  .  .  It  is  true,  that,  notwithstanding  the 
contrary  opinion  of  Manuel  and  Benjamin  Constant,  they 
hastened  to  render  the  peerage  durinf^  for  life,  without  doubt 
to  make  it  more  on  a  par  with  hereditary  royalty,  in  order 
to  enable  it  more  capable  of  resisting  the  executive  power. 
And  it  is  thus  only  that  they  have  arrived  at  transforming 
that  high  chamber  into  provostal  commissions,  to  the  great 
scandal  of  the  French  and  other  nations.  .  .  .  The  theories 
of  Brumaire,  I  honestly  confess,  were  progressive  in  another 
sense.  Mirabeau,  whose  opinions  were  become  conserva- 
tive the  day  after  the  storm,  said,  that  the  silence  of  Sieyes 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE.  171 

was  a  public  calamity  .  .  .  We  could  have  said  with  as 
much  truth,  that  it  was  an  irreparable  calamity  for  the  repub- 
licans, that  the  inability  to  which  Sieyes  was  reduced  to 
cause  his  senatorial  reform  to  be  adopted  in  the  majority  of 
the  council  of  five  hundred,  as  he  had  done  in  the  council 
of  ancients. 

What  books,  notwithstanding  the  works  of  falsehood,  of 
hatred,  or  frivolity,  calumniate  the  intentions,  confound  the 
epochs,  and  disfigure  the  history! — "Look,"  they  say,  "at 
the  despotism  of  the  empire,  the  wars  without  end,  the  inva- 
sion of  France.  It  is  Sieyes,  it  is  the  men  of  Brumaire, 
who  are  responsible  for  all  that."  But  if  you  will  attribute 
to  us  the  fault  of  the  empire,  notwithstanding  our  absence, 
is  it  not  just,  by  way  of  compensation,  to  attribute  to  us  also 
a  part  of  its  glory]  Ah!  who,  in  that  case,  would  refuse 
being  bound !  Tlie  empire  !  .  .  .  But  in  what  century,  under 
what  regime,  was  France  greater,  more  glorious,  more  pros- 
perous ]  Who  is  the  Frenchman,  liberal  or  Carlist,  blue  or 
Vendean,  who  would  efface  from  our  history  the  glorious 
records  of  the  empire  ]  Where  is  there,  amidst  the  thirty 
millions  of  French  hearts,  that  which  does  not  beat  with 
patriotic  pride  in  thinking  of  the  days  of  the  empire  ^  He 
must  be  seized  with  a  vertigo,  who  would  attempt  to  appro- 
priate to  himself  the  least  in  the  world  so  many  wonders  to 
which  he  had  not  the  happiness  of  contributing ;  but  it  would 
be  rather  too  philosophical  to  suffer  the  errors  or  the  wrongs 
to  be  imputed  to  which  one  had  not  contributed. 

Besides,  although  a  stranger  to  the  good  or  ill  of  the  em- 
pire, may  I  not  be  permitted  to  reply  to  him  who  finds  the 
ashes  of  Napoleon  very  loell  placed  at  St.  Helena,  and  to  those 
who,  like  him,  like  to  see  only  spots  in  the  sun  1  Napoleon, 
without  doubt,  was  not  infallible.  Spain  and  Russia  attacked 
at  the  same  time ;  Poland  and  Italy  awaiting  in  vain  their 
deliverance ;  the  chief  of  religion  persecuted,  after  having 
crowned  the  elect  of  the  people — have  not  drawn  reproaches 
without  some  appearance  of  truth.  And  yet,  what  a  series 
of  adverse  combinations  there  needed  to  change  into  disas- 
ter the  victorious  campaign  of  Russia  !  If  the  inconceivable 
peace  of  Bucharest — that  fault  so  capital  and  so  improbable, 
from  which  the  Porte  will  never  again,  perhaps,  arise — liad 
not  sent  behind  us  a  new  Russian  army,  or  that  the  allied 
corps  of  Austria  had  held  it  in  respect ;  if  a  Norman  prince, 
born  a  Frenchman,  after  having  at  first  defended  with  justice 
the  interests  of  his  adoptive  country,  had  stopped  at  the  cries 
of  distress  of  three  hundred  thousand  Frenchmen,  struck 
with  the  most  dreadful  scourge  ;  if  Jie  freezing  cold  had  not 
commenced  a  month  sooner  than  ordinary ;  if  the  flames, 
kindled  by  hands  patriotically,  heroically,  barbarous,  had  not 
devoured  Moscow  conquered  .  .  .  and  Napoleon  had  found 
general  peace,  maritime  peace,  in  those  deserts  of  disastrous 


172  MEMOIRS    OP 

memory  .  .  .  then  France — Europe — posterity — would  not 
have  found  sufficient  languages  to  celebrate  the  Russian  war 
.  .  .  and  the  powers  of  the  continent  and  England  would 
not  at  this  moment  look  at  Greece,  Egypt,  and  the  Bospho- 
rus,  with  so  much  anxiety. 

As  for  Spain,  after  twenty  years  of  wars  and  discord, 
where  is  she  now  I  She  is  agitated  by  the  convulsions  of 
the  most  barbarous  reprisals.  She  struggles  in  blood  and 
tears  to  obtain  that  which  the  convention  of  Bayonne  assured 
her,  whatever  might  have  been  the  means  employed  on  an- 
other account  to  unite  her.  The  equality  of  civil  rights,  the 
reform  of  the  convents,  the  suppression  of  the  inquisition, 
our  civil  code,  our  admirable  administrative  system,  our 
liberal  institutions,  our  public  instruction,  all  that  Spain  still 
seeks, — all  was  in  the  laws  of  Bayonne;  all  was  guarantied 
by  the  accepted  king,  acknowledged  by  the  convention,  by 
a  just  king,  enlightened,  and  a  philosopher.  I  have  seen 
many  Spanish  statesmen  in  my  sad  travels,  far  from  my 
country ;  and  how  many  I  have  heard  bitterly  deplore  that 
the  throne  of  the  King  Joseph  had  not  been  consolidated ! 
Nothing,  without  doubt,  can  justify  violence.  Liberty  itself, 
at  the  point  of  the  foreign  sword,  would  become  hateful  .  .  . 
But,  after  all,  the  torrent  of  invasion  w^ould  have  retired ; 
and  the  fertile  earth,  deposed  by  its  waves,  would  have 
rendered  the  peninsula  fruitful,  since  txoenty  years ! 

Poland  I — could  it  be  constituted  when  Austria  and  Prus- 
sia, in  arms,  were  at  the  head  of  our  allies  1  Moreover,  that 
nation,  whom  all  generous  men  bear  in  their  heart :  did  she, 
during  the  Russian  campaign,  do  all  that  she  could  have 
done  to  hasten  the  hour  of  her  independence  1  Has  she  not 
had  in  her  own  bosom  partisans  of  Alexander?  Did  Poland, 
in  fine,  demonstrate  that  intense  degree  of  universal  energy, 
that  wonderful  enthusiasm,  displayed  by  Spain  and  Russia? 
The  Emperor  Napoleon,  in  the  second  Polish  w^ar,  ought  he 
to  have  done  more  ?  Could  he  do  more,  without  impru- 
dence? If  he  had  done  it,  would  they  not  have  accused 
him  with  having  provoked,  like  a  madman,  in  the  middle  of 
a  mortal  crisis,  the  defection  of  Vienna  and  Berlin  ? 

Italy  ! — the  Pope  ! — Napoleon  himself  expressed  his  tar- 
dive regrets.  He  was  very  far  from  believing  himself  to  be 
perfect.  Have  we  not  heard  him  at  Paris  talk  of  his  limited 
faculties  ?  The  wisest  of  the  ancients  said,  "  /  know  that  I 
knoio  nothing.''''  The  greatest  of  moderns  said,  "  Do  you  be- 
lieve me  to  be  more  than  a  man?"  ...  It  is  the  same  cry, 
precious  emanation  of  the  same  soul,  although  uttered  by 
two  men,  at  two  thousand  years  of  distance. 

Before  this  avowal  so  ingenuously  sublime  of  human  im- 
perfection, how  wretched  is  the  pride  of  those  state  sophists, 
whose  superb  theory,  without  ceasing  to  think  itself  infalli- 
ble, terminates  with  the  most  sad  results !    No :  the  emperor 


LTJCIEN    BONAPARTE.  173 

was  ;iot,  and  did  not  believe  himself  to  be,  above  the  com- 
mon errors  of  humanity  :  and  yet  none  ever  abused  less  an 
absolute  power;  none  had  a  more  prodigious  genius  than 
he ;  none  ever  accomplished  such  vast  deeds  in  so  short  a 
space  of  time;  none,  above  all,  ever  better  loved  his  country. 

As  for  the  reproaches  of  despotism  and  usurpation,  France 
and  its  government  have  made  the  most  glorious  of  answers, 
an  answer  without  reply.  They  have  inaugurated  the  statue 
of  the  emperor.  His  detractors  do  not  see  how  far  their 
accusations  are  contradicted  by  public  opinion.  Let  them 
endeavour  to  explain  to  us — to  explain  to  themselves,  how  a 
great  nation  (without  it  w^as  senseless)  could  have  raised  a 
triumphant  monument  to  a  despot— to  a  usurper— fifteen  years 
after  his  death ! ! !  It  is  that  France  does  not  confound,  like 
them,  a  popular  dictature  with  despotism.  It  is  because 
France  knows  too  well  her  rights,  to  be  ignorant  that  the 
temporary  consul,  the  consul  for  hfe,  the  emperor  named 
three  times  by  the  universal  voting,  was  the  most  legitimate 
chief  of  all  times  and  all  countries. 

Can  they  think  that,  since  the  inauguration  of  the  imperial 
statue,  the  opinion  of  France  has  changed]  But  the  repre- 
sentative chamber  has  just  confirmed  that  opinion  by  her 
last  vote.  Would  it  reclaim  from  the  other  end  of  the  world 
the  ashes  of  a  despot  ...  of  a  usurper  ....  fifteen  years 
after  his  death!  It  is  true  that  they  still  persist  in  proscrib- 
ing the  family  of  the  hero  whose  remains  they  claim  !  May 
the  vote,  at  least,  not  be  disdained  in  that  which  it  possesses 
of  favourable  !  May  its  prompt  accomplishment  console  us 
in  our  exile,  wiiere  the  winds  of  France  sometimes  bring  us 
some  accents  of  sympathy  !  General  Pelet,  the  worthy  his- 
torian of  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon,  has  refuted  the 
reproach  of  an  immeasurable  ambition.  Monsieur  de  Gol- 
bery  has  signalized,  amidst  the  petitioners  who  have  not 
forgotten  us,  the  illustrious  names  of  Massena,  of  Lannes, 
of  Ney,  that  recall  so  many  victories!  M.  de  Brecqueville 
has  declared  that  it  was  not  the  emperor  who  betrayed  the 
country  in  the  hundred  days.  Monsieur  Manguin  has  cele- 
brated the  hero  of  national  independence,  whose  wandering 
family  is  a  living  trophy  of  our  disasters  !  General  Larabit 
nobly  replied  to  those  who  have  the  courage  to  affirm  that 
there  are  no  more  proscribed !  So  many  eloquent  voices, 
the  wishes  of  the  citizens  of  Paris,  of  Toulouse,  and  La  Cha- 
rente,  those  great  names,  dear  to  France, — will  all  be  pow- 
erless to  repair  injustice  1  .  .  .  Let  us  leave  to  the  country 
the  care  of  our  return.  When  she  desires  it,  her  will  will 
be  expressed  in  a  suitable  manner.  Paris,  Toulouse,  and 
La  Charente  will  find  echoes  in  every  part  where  the  mem- 
ory of  Napoleon  is  honoured.  The  names  of  Moskova,  of 
Montebello,  of  Esling,  are  not  the  only  illustrious  names  of 
the  ancient  companions,  the  friends  of  Napoleon;  and  the 

H* 


174  MEMOIRS    OP 

government,  which  has  already  repaired  in  part  the  iniquity, 
will  abase  without  difficulty  the  odious  barrier,  out  of  which 
they  keep  citizens  proscribed  upon  account  of  their  name, 
and  who  will  never  cease,  till  their  last  sigh,  to  stretch  out 
their  arms  towards  their  country. 

In  terminating  this  first  volume,  and  in  returning  to  our 
political  views  of  1800,  I  ask  myself  what  influence  the  ex- 
perience of  so  many  j^ears  has  liad  upon  our  sentiments  of 
that  epoch.  Has  that  experience  modified  the  opinions  of 
Sieyes?  Have  those  opinions  remained  stationary]  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  returning  to  the  ancient  recollections  of  the 
constituent  assembly,  have  they  passed  from  our  consular 
republic  to  the  constitutional  monarchy]  The  authentic 
memoirs  of  that  venerable  man  can  alone  resolve  that  ques- 
tion. I  hope  and  trust  that  he  will  not  deprive  the  country 
of  his  last  thoughts.  As  for  m3^self,  my  regrets  for  the 
senatorial  republic  have  remained  a  very  long  time.  Adver 
sity,  which  is  not  very  good  for  softening  the  humor,  has 
struggled  in  my  mind  for  a  long  time  against  the  evidence 
of  the  universal  voting  in  favor  of  the  monarchy,  and  against 
my  conviction  of  the  genius  and  patriotism  of  Napoleon. 
In  fine,  although  in  my  conference  at  Mantua  with  my  bro- 
ther, my  refusal  had  no  other  motive  than  the  political  re- 
strictions to  which  I  did  not  think  proper  to  submit;  but  it 
is  not  less  true,  that  until  my  residence  in  England,  there 
still  remained  in  me  a  great  deal  of  the  old  republican,  and 
public  liberty  appeared  to  me  to  be  almost  incompatible 
with  royalty. 

But  in  England  I  have  been  convinced  that  a  monarchy 
really  constitutional  is  requisite  for  a  great  people,  as  much, 
and  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  form  of  government. 
We  see  here  the  best  of  republics,  not  in  a  programme,  but 
in  facts  and  manners.  The  legislative  power  w  isely  divided 
amongst  three  authorities,  who  exercise  without  obstacle 
their  own  prerogatives : — the  executive  power  having  all 
the  authority  to  do  good,  and  not  having,  and  not  seeking 
to  do  evil.  Tlie  judiciary  power  is  so  completely  indepen- 
dent, that  the  most  obscure  individual,  as  well  as  the  richest 
lord,  as  the  most  ilkistrious  or  the  most  humble  exile  of  the 
continent,  reposes  equally  in  security,  beneath  the  guaran- 
tee of  the  jury,  that  no  sacrilegious  attack  can  tarnish,  and 
beneath  the  inviolability  of  the  domicile,  that  no  wretch  can 
violate.  The  elective  chamber,  named  by  eight  hundred 
thousand  electors  over  a  population  of  twenty-five  millions, 
which,  without  being  the  universal  suff'rage,  approaches  five 
times  nearer  to  it  than  we  do,  since  we  ought  to  have  in  that 
proportion  more  than  a  million  of  electors!  The  chamber 
of  peers,  in  fine,  is  accessible  to  every  citizen,  and  too  pow- 
erful and  too  enlightened  to  yield  to  the  seductions  of  courts, 
or  the  clamors  of  the  multitude.     These  hereditary  magis- 


LUCIEN    BONAPARTE,  175 

trates  have  been  for  above  a  century  and  a  half  the  defend- 
ers of  the  charter,  the  immortal  work  of  their  ancestors, 
their  tutelary  supremacy  will  long  continue  to  be  the  pal- 
ladium of  British  liberties.  Provided  they  never  cease  to 
oppose  an  immoveable  resistance  to  the  overflowing  torrent 
of  demagogical  opinions,  that  a  social  overthrow  can  alone 
satisfy.  Provided  they  do  not  abandon  their  ground  to 
defend  themselves  feebly  against  that  of  their  adversaries. 
Provided  they  follow  always  the  high  state  reason,  which 
judges,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  effect  of  a  new  law  upon 
the  whole  of  the  constitution,  instead  of  considering  solely 
that  absolute  perfection  of  theory,  illusory  enough  some- 
times to  insinuate  into  the  political  body  a  mortal  germ  of 
dissolution,  seductive  appearance  of  a  salutary  amelioration. 
Provided,  above  all,  that  they  do  not  arrive,  some  day^  even 
to  suffer  them  to  drag  in  the  dirt  the  patrician  toga,  or  at  least 
cease  to  have  the  same  respect  for  it  as  for  the  royal  mantle 
and  the  elective  chamber;  for,  {if  by  timidity,)  by  indifference, 
or  by  a  false  popularity,  to  provoke  or  contribute  to  the 
profanation  of  one  of  the  three  fundamental  authorities, 
would  that  be  walking  in  the  road  to  a  wise  reform  ?  .  .  . 
Would  it  not  rather  be  completely  turning  the  back  upon  old 
England  to  follow  the  errors  of  a  democracy  without  con- 
trol !  .  .  .  Would  it  not  be  denying  that  charter,  as  yet 
without  a  rival  in  the  ancient  world,  and  whose  vital 
strength  resides  in  the  equal  independence,  the  equal  re- 
spectability, the  equal  inviolability  of  the  king,  the  lords  and 
commons. 

Nothing  is  perfect  upon  earth,  either  in  men  or  in  the 
laws  .  .  .  Byt  where,  when  shall  we  approach  nearer 
to  perfection  ? 

We  thought  on  the  18th  Brumaire  to  approach  nearer,  in 
founding  simultaneously  a  large  democracy,  and  an  aristo- 
cracy during  life,  upon  one  sole  and  same  basis,  the  uni- 
versal suffrage  of  several  degrees. 

But  France  willed  that  the  consular  republic  was  but  a 
bright  dream  of  a  few  days     .... 

May  she  at  least  perfect  her  monarchy,  by  recon- 
ciling herself  with  the  system  of  an  hereditary  body  patri- 
otically organized.  That  legislative  combination  is  the 
most  liberal  of  all  under  a  monarchy,  because  it  is  alone 
capable  of  serving  as  a  balance  to  a  royal  hereditary  power, 
and  to  a  representative  popular  power,  as  it  is  against  her 
own  nature  to  transform  it  into  a  privilege  of  burghership, 
and  which,  very  shortly,  it  will  be  no  longer  possible  to 
disinherit  any  one  amongst  us. 

It  is  then  only  that  we  shall  have  a  throne  surrounded 
with  republican  institutions.  That  is  to  say,  with  democratic 
and  aristocratic  institutions,  wisely  balanced  .  .  .  It  is 
then,  that  after  fifty  years  of  incomplete  and  glorious  essays, 


176  MEMOIRS    OF   LUCIEN   BONAPARTE. 

we  shall  rest  at  once  upon  an  elective  representation,  frank 
and  universal,  and  upon  an  hereditary  magistrature,  power- 
fully conservative.  We  may  then  equal  and  surpass,  per- 
haps, that  liberal  nation,  once  our  enemy,  v^^hose  fortunate 
alliance,  (strong-  barrier  raised  against  despotism,  individual 
or  collective,)  appears  to  promise  to  the  people  of  Europe 
the  pacific  and  progressive  triumph  of  the  mixed  govern- 
ments, the  only  ones  where  the  constitutional  liberties, 
precious  fruits  of  our  civilization,  can  live  and  prosper  in 
the  midst  of  the  inequalities  and  passions  inseparable  from 
humanity. 


i 


NOTES. 


(1)  The  able  Fesch  is  now  Cardinal  and  Archbishop  of  Lyons, 
although  removed  from  his  see  by  the  persecution  which  has  not 
yet  ceased  to  strike  the  family  of  Napoleon. 

(2)  Address  of  Raynal,  read  at  the  bar  of  the  National  Conven- 
tion.    Sitting  of  the  31st  of  May,  1791. 

"  On  arriving  in  this  capital,  after  a  long  absence,  my  heart  and 
my  affections  are  turned  towards  you — ready  to  descend  into  the 
night  of  the  tomb*  *  *  What  do  I  see  around  mel  Religiou.s 
troubles,  civil  dissentions,  the  consternation  of  some,  the  boldnes? 
and  the  rage  of  others ;  a  government,  the  slave  of  popular  tyranny, 
the  sanctuary  of  the  laws  surrounded  by  licentious  men,  who  wish 
alternately  to  dictate  or  to  brave  them  ;  soldiers  without  discipline; 
chiefs  without  authority,  magistrates  without  courage,  minister? 
without  means;  a  king,  the  first  friend  of  his  people,  plunged  in 
grief,  outraged,  menaced,  stripped  of  all  authority,  and  the  sover- 
eign power  existing  only  in  clubs,  where  ignorant  and  violent  meu 
dare  to  pronounce  upon  all  political  questions.  Such  is,  gentlemen, 
doubt  it  not,  such  is  the  true  state  of  France. 

"  I  was  full  of  hope  and  joy  when  I  saw  you  lay  the  foundations 
of  public  happiness,  pursue  all  abuses,  proclaim  all  just  rights,  sub- 
mit to  the  same  laws,  and  a  uniform  administration  in  all  the  dif^ 
ferent  parts  of  this  empire.  My  eyes  were  filled  with  tears  when 
?aw  the  most  vile,  the  most  wicked  of  men,  employed  as  the  instru- 
ments of  a  necessary  revolution  ;  when  I  saw  the  holy  name  cf  pat- 
riotism, prostituted  to  villany  and  licentiousness,  march  in  triumph 
nnder  the  ensigns  of  liberty  !  Terror  was  mingled  with  sincere 
grief,  when  I  saw  all  the  springs  of  government  broken,  and  power- 
less barriers  substituted  to  the  necessity  of  an  active  and  repressive 
force.  How  I  suffer  when  in  the  midst  of  the  capital  and  the  focus 
of  knowledge,  I  see  this  people  seduced  to  receive,  with  a  ferocious 
joy,  the  most  culpable  propositions,  to  smile  at  the  relation  of 
assassinations,  to  sing  of  their  crimes  as  of  conquests,  to  appeal 
stupidly  to  the  enemies  of  the  revolution,  to  defile  it  with  complai- 
cence,  to  shut  their  eyes  to  all  the  evils  with  which  they  are  op- 
pressed. Called  to  regenerate  France,  you  ought  first  to  consider 
what  you  can  usefully  preserve  of  the  ancient  order,  and  still  more, 
what  you  cannot  abandon  of  it,  France  was  a  monarchy:  its  ex- 
tent, its  wants,  its  manners,  its  national  character,  are  invincibly 
opposed  to  that  which  can  ever  admit  of  republican  institutions 
without  working  a  total  dissolution  of  it.  The  monarchical  powr 
was  vitiated  by  two  causes:  the  foundations  of  it  were  surrounded 
by  prejudices,  and  its  limits  were  only  marked  by  partial  resist- 
ances. To  purify  the  principles,  in  fixing  the  throne  upon  its  true 
basis,  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation ;  to  set  the  bounds  in  placing 
them  in  the  national  representation,  was  what  you  had  to  do.    And 


2  NOTES. 

you  think  to  liave  done  it! — But  in  regulating  the  two  powers,  the 
strength  and  the  success  of  the  constitution  depend  upon  the  equili- 
brium, and  you  had  to  defend  yourself  against  the  real  inclination 
of  ideas,  you  ought  to  see  that  in  opinion  the  power  of  kings  de- 
clines, and  that  the  rights  of  the  people  increase;  so  that  in  weak- 
ening without  measure,  that  which  tends  naturally  to  efface  itself, 
in  strengthening  without  proportion  that  which  tends  naturally  to 
augment,  you  arrived  forcibly  to  this  sad  result — a  king  without 
auSiority,  a  people  without  restraint.  How  can  you  suffer,  after 
having  consecrated  the  principle  of  individual  liberty,  that  there 
should  exist  in  your  bosom  an  inquisition,  which  serves  as  a  model 
and  a  pretext  for  all  the  inferior  inquisitions,  which  a  factious  rest- 
lessness has  spread  in  all  parts  of  the  empire.  You  have  laid  the 
foundations  of  liberty — of  every  rational  constitution,  in  assuring 
to  the  people  the  right  of  making  laws,  and  to  decree  taxes.  An- 
archy will  even  swallow  up  these  important  rights,  if  you  do  not 
place  them  under  the  care  of  an  active  and  vigorous  government; 
despotism  awaits  us,  if  you  always  repel  the  tutelary  protection  of 
royal  authority." 

(3)  Report  on  the  election  of  Lucien  Bonaparte — sitting  of  the 
29th  of  Floreal,  6th  year.    Malikan  reporter. 

Representatives  of  the  people,  said  he,  the  20th  Germinal  last, 
the  electoral  assembly  of  the  department  of  the  Liamone,  assembled 
in  the  place  appointed  by  the  central  administration,  has  proceed- 
ed to  the  nomination  of  a  deputy  to  the  legislative  body,  conforma- 
bly to  the  dispositions  of  the  law  of  the  27th  Pluviose,  the  5th  year, 
arid  the  citizen  Lucien  Bonaparte  has  been  elected  by  unanimous 
suffrages,  member  of  the  council  of  five  hundred,  for  three  years,  i 

The  process  verbal  of  this  assembly  presents  a  picture  of  the  de- 
corum, calmness,  and  harmony  amongst  the  citizens  who  composed 
it ;  all  the  dispositions  of  the  laws  have  been  respected,  and  all  the 
formalities  exactly  observed. 

A  single  difficulty  presents  itself;  I  submit  it  to  the  council  ac- 
cording to  the  description  which  was  decreed  for  ten  years  the27lh 
Pluviose  of  the  year  5,  the  department  of  the  Liamone  proceeded, 
in  the  year  6,  to  name  a  deputy  for  the  council  of  five  hundred; 
but  by  a  subsequent  law  you  have  decided,  the  12lh  Pluviose  last, 
that  for  the  present  year  the  department  of  the  Liamone  should  not 
nominate  a  deputy  to  the  legislative  body. 

If  this  last  law  had  been  promulgated  in  the  department  of  the 
Liamone  before  the  holding  of  the  electoral  assembly,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  election  would  be  void ;  but  your  commission  has 
considered  that  the  law  of  the  12th  Praireal  of  the  year  6,  not  hav- 
ing then  arrived  in  the  department  of  the  Liamone,  the  electoral 
assembly  fulfilled  its  duly  in  conforming  to  the  existing  law  in 
nominating  a  deputy  to  the  council  of  five  hundred.  It  has  con- 
sidered that  in  the  actual  circumstances  of  the  case,  being  much 
below  the  full  number,  there  was  no  inconvenience  in  declaring 
the  election  made  by  the  department  of  the  Liamone  valid.  This 
is  the  project : 

Article  1st,  The  proceedings  of  the  electoral  assembly  of  the 
department  of  the  Liamone,  relative  to  the  nomination  of  a  deputy 
by  the  said  department  to  the  legislative  body,  are  declared  valid. 
Therefore  the  citizen  Lucien  Bonaparte  shall  be  admitted  the  1st 
Praireal  next  to  the  council  of  five  hundred  for  three  years. 


NOTES.  3 

2d.  The  dispositions  of  the  law  of  the  27th  Pluviose,  relative  to 
the  elections  of  the  department  of  the  Liamone,  are  repealed  in  that 
which  would  be  contrary  to  the  present  resolution.  The  council 
declares  the  urgency,  adopts  the  project,  and  in  consequence  re- 
ceives into  its  bosom  for  three  years  the  citizen  Lucien  Bonaparte. 

Observations  submitted  on  this  subject  in  favor  of  the  project,  ob- 
servations which  the  council  interrupted  the  reading  of  by  demand- 
ing to  go  to  the  vote,  will  be  given  in  the  impression. 

(4)  Sitting  of  the  29ih  Messidor,  the  year  6.  I  come  to  recall 
eternal  principles,  which  cannot  be  unknown  in  this  circle.  I  come 
to  support  the  opinion  of  our  collegiate  Creuze  Latouche.  I  ought 
to  make  a  distinction  between  the  propc-itions  which  are  made  to 
you.  The  decades,  you  say,  are  the  only  fete,  yes,  the  only  nation- 
al fete,  the  only  republican  feie;  we  have  the  right  to  consecrate  it 
by  a  law,  but  we  have  not  the  right  to  hinder  a  citizen  from  cele- 
brating the  fete,  which  his  own  religion  appoints  him.  Can  we 
order  a  freeman  to  work  on  such  a  day  1  Can  we  say  to  a  republi- 
can on  such  a  day,  whatever  may  be  his  religion,  thou  shalt  workl 
Repiesentatives,  tolerance  is  the  sister  of  liberty — persecution  is  the 
daughter  of  tyranny.  At  Rome,  even  under  the  papal  domination, 
have  you  ever  heard  tell  that  it  forced  a  sect  you  will  easily  call  to 
mind,  to  work  on  the  Saturday  1  And  we,  the  representatives  of  a 
free  people,  shall  we  give  less  latitude  in  the  exercise  of  religious 
worship  than  the  Roman  pontiff? 

Sitting  of  the  19th  Thermidor,  year  6.  The  reporter  read  the 
article  relative  to  the  opening  of  shops  and  warehouses,  on  the  fete 
days  of  the  ancient  calendar. 

Lucien  Bonaparte — You  have  declared,  some  days  since,  that  the 
decades  and  the  days  of  national  fetes  were  those  of  rest  throughout 
the  republic;  a  measure  is  again  presented  to  you  to-day,  already 
combatted  and  already  repelled.  Penetrated  as  you  are,  with  the 
deepe-^t  hatred  against  fanaticism  and  blind  sectaries,  I  contend 
against  the  proposition  which  is  made  to  you. 

Several  voices — Adjournment  to  Primedi. 

The  President  to  Lucien  Bonaparte — You  are  the  speaker—^ 
go  on. 

A^ ,  Maintain  the  question.— President,  I  demand  a  reply  to 

the  question. 

Bonaparte — Three  different  propositions  have  been  made.  The 
first  declared  that  the  days  of  the  decades  were  the  only  days  of  re- 
pose. The  second  applied  the  measure  only  to  traders  ;  at  last  it  is 
restricted  to  ordain  the  opening  of  shops,  only  on  fair  and  market 
days.  I  will  examine  these  different  propositions — ihey  all  deserve 
your  attention,  not  as  concerning  their  object  in  themselves,  but  as 
concerning  the  general  good,  and  as  to  the  circumstances  and  tran- 
quillity of  the  whole  republic.  The  first  amendment  declared  the 
day  of  decade  the  only  day  of  rest.  In  this  I  see  nothing  more  than 
an  inquisitorial  measure  without  a  parallel.  I  open  the  codes  of 
all  the  tyrannies ;  I  retrace  the  acts  of  all  usurpers,  and  I  do  not 
find  an  example  of  such  a  violation  of  individual  liberty. 

The  President. — I  interrupt  the  speaker  to  intimate  to  him  that 
the  resolution  upon  the  decades  has  been  adopted  by  the  council  of 
the  ancients,  and  that  this  amendment  is  no  longer  the  question, 

Lucien  Bonaparte. — I  can  speak  to  all  the  amendments  which 
have  been  made,  show  the  danger  of  them  when  they  have  been 


4  NOTES. 

supported  at  this  tribunal  in  full  liberty.  They  relate  to  individula 
liberty,  and  I  think  they  are  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  discussed 
with  deep  consideration.  What  has  been  said  in  their  favor  has 
been  heard ;  the  privilege  of  combatting  them  should  also  be  allow- 
ed. I  continue — the  adjournment  to  Primedi  is  again  demanded. 
The  adjournment  is  declared 

(5)  The  silting  of  the  27ih  Thermidor  of  the  year  6. 

The  President. — Lucien  Bonaparte  has  demanded  to  speak  on 
this  question. 

Liicien  Bonaparte. — I  have  asked  to  speak  but  for  the  purpose  of 
opposing  the  custom  of  injurious  reaoncilements,  a  custom  which 
has  become  too  much  the  fashion. 

Several  voices. — That  is  true.     Supported. 

Bonaparte. — What  means  this  affectation  of  always  recalling 
Gibert  Desmolieres,  and  of  receiving  his  name  in  preference  to  that 
of  members  who  appear  at  the  tribune'?  We  have  not  here  to  do 
with  Gibert  Desmolieres;  it  is  not  a  question  as  to  what  has  been 
done,  said  or  proposed,  by  the  conspirators ;  no  doubt,  to  attain 
their  ends,  they  have  thought  it  their  duty  to  employ  sometimes  pop- 
ular forms,  and  to  publish  notions  which  approached  to  the  general 
good ;  but  because  such  or  such  an  expedient  has  been  theirs,  is  it 
to  be  said  that  this  expedient  shall  be  interdicted  to  a  republican  1 
If  they  have  put  forth  a  constitutional  opinion;  if  they  have  held 
republican  language,  I  declare  that  I  will  hold  forth  alike  opinion, 
and  will  maintain  the  same  language  with  the  single  difference  of 
intention. 

I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  say  these  few  words,  in  order  that 
these  descriptions  of  reconcilement  may  not  in  future  be  permitted, 
as  they  only  embarrass  a  discussion,  and  give  the  opinion  of  the 
council  a  false  direction.  I  was  desirous  to  warn  the  council  of  the 
use  of  a  similar  expedient. 

(6)  Sitting  of  the  16th  Thermidor,  year  6. 

The  order  of  the  day  calls  for  the  debate  on  the  project  of  Lucien 
Bonaparte,  relative  to  the  relief  to  be  afforded  to  the  widows  and 
children  of  soldiers. 

This  is  the  report  with  which  the  reading  of  the  project  had  been 
preceded. 

The  18ih  Praireal,  said  the  reporter,  you  made  a  resolution  rel- 
ative to  the  relief  lobe  afforded  to  the  widows  and  children  of  the 
defenders  of  their  country.  The  18th  Messidor  the  council  of  the 
ancients  declared  they  could  not  adopt  it.  If  the  council  of  the  an- 
cients has  not  approved  at  length  of  your  dispositions  of  the  18th 
Praireal,  it  is  because  it  has  considered  them  incomplete  for  the 
land  forces,  and  inapplicable  to  the  seamen.  If,  however,  the  land 
forces  have  a  thousand  times  well  deserved  of  their  countrj'',  the 
navel  forces,  held  back  unto  this  day,  in  spite  of  them,  begin  to  press 
forward  in  their  career,  and  their  firstsfep  announces  that  they  are 
also  the  favored  sons  of  victory — yes,  if  forests  of  laurels  do  not 
yet  overshadow  the  genius  of  our  marine,  it  is  because  it  has  been 
to  this  day  in  its  infancy,  from  causes  which  I  shall  not  recall  to 
your  mind.  Vivacity  and  courage  may  be  the  portion  of  a  noble 
child;  but  vigor  can  only  be  acquired  by  the  development  of  the 
physical  faculties,  and  nature  prescribes  for  this  development  a 
fixed  period. 

In  those  isolated  battles  of  vessel  to  vessel,  of  frigaie  to  frigate, 


NOTES.  5 

where  the  English  have  always  had  the  superiority  in  numhers,  has 
not  oar  marine  proved  that  the  enthusiasm  of  liberty  can  overcome 
the  coolness  of  art  1  In  those  isolated  battles  of  the  ocean  and  the 
Mediterranean,  have  not  traits  of  valor  been  exhibited  which  claim, 
immortalit}^  and  which  the  burine  ofhistory  will  trace  in  characters 
of  gold? 

These  first  exploits  were  the  sure  guarantee  of  victory,  as  soon 
as  a  French  fleet  should  appear  upon  the  bosom  of  the  ocean.  Our 
marine  emerges  from  infancy,  and  exhibits  itself  in  all  the  lustre 
of  youth.  Yesterday  Malta  became  its  first  conquest ;  to-day  it  is 
forgotten  in  search  of  nobler  victories.  The  destinies  of  the  repub- 
lic will  surely  guide  it  to  accomplish  great  things.  What  is  there 
impossible  ta  soldiers  covered  with  laurels,  to  sailors  impatient  to 
do  the  same  1  Glory  unites  the  army  and  the  navy  ;  let  not  the  na- 
tional beneficence  separate  them.  The  widows,  the  children  of 
these  warriors,  shall  be  equally  the  objects  of  our  paternal  solici- 
tude. 

The  commission  thinks  it  ought  to  unite  in  the  same  project  sol- 
diers and  sailors. 

Your  commission  is  of  opinion  that  it  is  proper  to  ordain  a  mode 
of  payment  in  each  department  every  month,  and  to  simplify  it  as 
much  as  possible,  without  compellmg  the  pensioners  to  apply  to 
the  treasury.  Representatives  of  the  people,  the  widows,  the 
children  of  our  warriors,  speak  a  language  which  many  clerks  do 
not  understand.  These  respectable  families  have  no  intrigues,  no 
gold ;  they  have  only  tears,  and  tears  so  touching  to  sensible  rainds, 
affect  but  lightly  the  invulnerable  hearts  of  certain  beings.  No, 
you  will  not  confide  to  these  men  the  carrying  in'o  eiiect  a  national 
reward — a  reward  so  noble  in  its  origin,  becomes  iu  their  hands  a 
source  of  incalculable  ignominy.  Yea  must  cringe  before  two, 
three,  or  perhaps  twenty  clerl..-.  and  before  you  have  completed 
the  half  of  this  career  of  humiliation,  the  mind  is  so  abased,  that 
to  have  the  strength  to  finish  it,  you  must  more  than  once  feel  the 
cravings  of  hunger. 

Your  resolution  ordains  that  the  reduction  or  augmentation  of 
pensions  shall  be  made  inthe  margin  of  the  commission  of  pen- 
sioners, by  the  authority  which  would  have  originally  paid  the 
penston.  By  this  article  all  pensioners  were  obliged  to  strip  them- 
selves of  their'  titles,  and  to  send  them  to  Paris.  It  has  appeared 
more  simple  that  the  ministers  of  war  and  of  marine,  who  have 
in  their  bureaux  the  titles  of  all  the  pensions  already  granted, 
should  prepare  each  for  their  department  a  general  table  of  these 
pensions,  reduced  or  augmented  according  to  the  present  arrange- 
ments. 

A  third  observation  is  also  here  suggested.  The  pensions  grant- 
ed for  the  future,  and  those  which  are  going  to  be  reduced  or  aug- 
mented according  to  the  rate  marked  out  in  the  present  law,  shall 
they  be  susceptible  of  reduction  to  a  third  part,  prescribed  by  the 
law  of  9th  Vendemiaire  last  1 

Our  opinion  upon  this  question  cannot*be  for  a  moment  doubtful, 
since  in  the  present  law  you  reconcile  as  much  as  possible,  econo- 
my with  national  justice;  it  is  plain  that  these  are  the  sums  fixed 
by  the  law,  and  not  the  third  part  of  these  sums,  that  you  intend  to 
grant  to  the  relations  of  the  defenders  of  our  countjty.  We  have 
sufficiently  rambled  over  the  words,  both  politically  and  financially ; 

a 


6  N»TES. 

it  is  lime  that  every  thing  should  resume  the  signification  and  the 
value  which  is  appropriate  to  it.  The  commission,  therefore,  pro- 
poses to  you  to  declare,  by  an  additional  article,  that  these  pensions 
shall  not  be  subject  to  any  reduction. 

The  6lh  article  of  your  resolution  of  the  18th  Praireal,  fixes  the 
pensions  to  be  granted  to  the  widows  of  general  officers  of  every 
grade,  from  four  to  six  hundred  franks.  The  commission  has  con- 
sidered this  sum  too  small,  and  that  it  was  not  in  the  proportioa 
;which  exists  between  the  appointments  of  a  general  officer,  and 
those  of  subalterns ;  nor  in  those  which  exist  between  the  appoint- 
ments of  a  general  officer  and  a  general-in-chief ;  it  has,  therefore, 
carried  these  pensions  up  to  from  six  to  nine  hundred  franks  for 
general  officers,  and  for  the  same  reason  it  has  thought  it  desirable 
to  fix  at  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  franks,  the  pensions  of 
widows  of  commanders  in  chief  of  the  land  and  of  sea  forces;  it 
is  unnecessary  to  develop  to  you  further  the  motives  of  the  com- 
mission on  this  subject.  The  12th  article  fixed  at  fourteen  years 
the  relief  to  be  granted  to  orphans.  The  commission  thinks  that 
the  republic  ought  not  to  abandon  these  orphans  until  they  can  be- 
bome  soldiers. 

What ! — representatives  of  the  people,  would  you  abandon  the 
children  of  those  brave  men,  before  the  age  that  the  laws  opens  to 
them  the  career  of  glory"?  What  then  would  become  of  these  un- 
fortunate children  1  Deprived  of  their  parents,  abandoned  by  the 
republic,  which  had  promised  to  take  care  of  their  youth,  repelled 
from  the  army,  where  the  law  does  not  yet  permit  them  to  be  en- 
rolled, there  only  remains  to  them  despair  or  the  debasing  resource 
of  devoting  themselves  to  servile  employments,  or  to  implore  the 
pity  of  the  traveller !  The  livery  of  misery  or  of  servitude  would 
cover  the  sons  of  our  warriors! — and  the  incorrigible  royalist,  see- 
ing them  with  complaisance  would  smile  with  pleasure,' and  would 
say  to  the  citizens — go;  pour  out  yonr  blood  for  this  republic  fer- 
tile in  promises.  Your  children,  succored  for  some  years  will  end 
in  asking  charity. — No,  representatives  of  the  people,  you  cannot 
thus  forsake  the  orphams  at  fourteen  years.  It  is  at  this  age,  in 
which  misery  brings  after  it  all  the  vices,  when  the  character  is 
forming,  and  the  passions  develop  themselves,  that  you  ought  to 
watch,  with  paternal  care,  over  the  children  of  our  country,  until 
they  can  follow  the  impulse  of  their  generous  hearts,  and  render 
themselves  worthy  of  the  name  they  bear  with  pride. 

The  republic  ought  to  take  them  by  the  hand  from  the  field  of 
battle,  and  from  the  field  of  battle  to  the  tomb  ;  the  lives  of  these 
noble  children  would  be  but  a  succession  of  services  rendered  to 
that  country  v.^hich  has  been  a  mother  to  them.  Then  the  dying 
warrior  will  close  his  eyes  without  uneasiness  for  the  fate  of  his 
son ;  he  will  know  that  his  country  adopts  him,  and  that  it  will 
take  care  of  him  until  he  can  be  enrolled.  He  will  die  in  the  hope 
that  his  son  will  soon  follow  in  his  steps,  and  perhaps  surpass  him ; 
and  his  name  repeated  a  thousand  times  by  fame,  will  soon  be  re- 
vived still  more  glorious ! 

Sublime  sentiment  of  glory,  emanation  of  the  divinity,  thou  shalt 
console  the  dying  warrior  in  the  field  of  honor,  who  without  dis- 
quiet for  his  family,  and  uneasiness  for  his  country,  will  ask  in  his 
last  momants  if  victory  has  continued  faithful  to  the  colors  of  the 


NOTES.  7 

republic.  Lucien  Bonaparte  presents  a  project  conformable  to  these 

dispositions. 

I,  (7)  Sitting  of  the  29th  Thermidor,  year  6. 

The  President. — The  debate  ought  to  open  upon  a  project  rela- 
tive to  the  recruiting  of  the  army;  but  Lucien  Bonaparte  demands 
to  speak  upon  a  motion  of  order. 

LMcien  Bonaparte. — Representatives  of  the  people,  amongst  the 
counter-revolutionary  factions,  there  are  none  more  dangerous, 
more  tolerated,  more  spread  than  those  of  the  diiapidaiors;  each 
of  us  have  declared  war  to  the  death  of  this  liberticide  faction  ; 
and  our  session  will  be  useful  and  celebrated  in  the  annals  of  this 
^reat  nation,  by  the  suppression  of  ;;*)bberies  and  the  punishment 
of  robbers.  Such  are  the  justly  cherished  hopes  of  our  constitu- 
ents— such  are  the  unshaken  and  courageous  intentions  of  each  of 
us.  You  have  already  manifested  these  restorative  intentions  with 
a  force  which  has  carried  a  cold  sweat  to  the  front  of  crime;  al- 
ready commissions  are  formed  for  the  accounts  to  be  rendered  by 
the  ministers,  for  the  publicity  of  markets,  and  for  infamous  games 
which  make  a  branch  of  commerce  slill  more  infamous.  You 
desired  that  a  special  commission  should  occupy  itself  with  the 
means  of  reaching  the  dilapidators,  and  to  prevent  dilapidations 
hereafter.  It  is  in  the  name  of  this  commission,  composed  of  your 
colleagues,  Duplautier,  Destrem,  Gourlay,  Marquezy  and  myself, 
that  I  come  this  day  to  lay  before  you  the  first  page  of  its  labors, 
and  to  propose  to  you  the  means  for  making  use  of  it. 

Your  commission  has  at  first  been  struck  with  a  reconcilement 
which  should  offer  a  mournful  subject  to  the  friends  of  their  coun- 
try. Several  times  the  legislative  body  has  testified  its  hatred 
against  the  dilapidators  ;  it  has  charged  special  commissions  seve- 
ral times  to  present  to  it  the  means  of  repression  and  punishment. 
Well !  these  commissions  have  never  fulfilled  their  instructions  ; 
the  magic  force  circumstances  have  always  substituted  silence  for 
•ourage  ;  the  abyss  has  been  approached  without  daring  to  look  at 
it,  or  if  a  glance  has  been  thrown  at  its  depth,  it  seems  that  they 
have  trembled  to  say  what  they  have  discovered. 

We  turn  aside  our  eyes  from  the  causes  which  have  hindered  the 
commissions  that  have  preceded  us  to  fulfil  their  instructions,  but 
we  promise  our  colleagues  to  fufil  our  own.  We  will  fathom  the 
abyss,  we  will  march  to  our  aim,  and  nothing  shall  turn  us  aside 
from  the  career  you  have  opened  to  us,  and  where  we  shall  press 
forward  with  an  entire  devotion. 

To  stop  the  dilapidations,  to  reach  the  dilapidators,  whatever 
may  be  the  mantles  which  cover  them,  without  doubt  ihis  task  will 
not  be  fulfilled  without  obstacles;  but  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  to  do  good,  have  only  to  will  it  strongly.  It  is  with  them 
to  promote  the  public  good  without  regarding  those  who  surround 
them  ;  as  the  warrior  rushes  on  to  victory  without  calculating  the 
dangers.  No  doubt  the  blood-suckers  of  the  people  pursued  by  you, 
will  dart  upon  your  their  poisons ;  they  possess  gold,  boldness,  and 
the  tact  for  seduction,  and  proud  of  these  advantages,  will  perhaps 
think  themselves  strong  enough  to  encounter  the  struggle;  but  we 
will  oppose  to  them  the  force  of  the  law,  the  good  of  the  people, 
the  will  of  the  sovereign,  and  they  will  be  overthrown,  and  their 
punishment  will  serve  as  an  example  and  a  lesson.  The  execu- 
tive directory  will  be  eager,  no  doubt,  to  unite  its  efibrts  with  those 


8  NOTES. 

of  the  legislative  body  to  reach  the  dilapidators  ;  it  will  feel  as  we 
do,  that  the  time  for  half  measures  against  rogues  is  passed,  and 
that  to  bear  with  them  much  longer  would  be  to  let  slide  into  their 
hands  the  remainder  of  the  national  fortune,  and  render  new 
taxes  necessary.  It  is  not  enough  for  the  purposes  of  justice,  and 
the  interests  of  the  people,  that  we  represent,  that  the  cowardly 
agents  of  its  ruin,  bow  down  before  us  iheir  timid  faces  to  raise 
them  again  shortly  charged  with  boldness  and  eagerness ;  their 
drooping  faces  must  not  be  allowed  to  raise  themselves  again. 
The  commission  is  already  occupied  with  several  important  ob- 
jects; it  will  examine  in  succession  the  different  parts  of  the  pub- 
lic expenses,  and  will  present  to  you,  in  some  degree,  the  means 
of  extirpating  these  abuses.  Its  labors  require  this  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding, because  it  tends  to  prevent  dilapidations  of  every  kind ; 
and  from  that  time  it  is  not  a  complete  plan,  but  a  thousand  partial 
measures  that  it  will  and  should  submit  lo  your  examination ;  it 
was  already  prepared  to  propose  to  you  several  of  them ;  but  far- 
ther reflection  has  stopped  it.  In  the  firm  resolution  we  have 
taken  to  tear  aside  every  veil  of  intrigue,  would  it  not  be  neces- 
sary and  prudent  that  we  were  heard  only  by  our  colleagues  7 
Since  we  must  speak  out,  malevolence,  always  on  the  watch,  might 
it  not  profit  by  our  solemn  discussion  1  None  of  us,  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  are  ignorant  of  it ;  the  hydra  of  faction  watches 
around  this  palace  ;  she  spies  us  without  ceasing,  and  she  often 
translates  into  her  own  infernal  idiom  what  is  said  at  this  tri- 
bune ;  she  will  hear  you,  and  will  be  eager  to  comment  on  our 
speeches,  and  to  envenom  our  intentions,  that  she  maybe  able  to 
seize  upon  a  generous  movement  which  was  certainly  not  made 
for  her. 

The  commi.*;sion  has  considered  that  in  order  to  avoid  evil,  it 
should  propose  to  the  council  to  form  itself  into  a  general  com- 
mittee when  it  could  deal  with  the  projects  that  would  be  presented 
to  it.  By  these  means  the  faction  would  be  baffled,  we  should  n9 
longer  be  impeded  by  the  patriotic  fear  of  giving  a  hold  to  male- 
volence, in  spite  of  us;  we  shall  give  ourselves  up  entirely  to  the 
holy  occupation  you  have  committed  to  us,  and  we  shall  present 
to  you,  with  still  more  confidence  and  pleasure,  the  result  of  our 
labors.  The  commission  has,  therefore,  charged  me  to  ask  for  a 
general  committee  in  order  that  it  may  submit  for  your  discussion 
several  projects  of  law  which  tend  to  the  salutary  design  of  ame- 
lioration. 

These  reflections  have  naturally  brought  us  to  examine  if  it 
would  not  be  advantageous  to  the  public,  that  every  important  dis- 
cussion on  the  finances  were  made  in  a  general  committee.  In 
suppressing  this  publicity,  you  would  already  weaken  this  vile 
species  of  dilapidators  of  the  public  wealth,  who  could  not  exist 
by  their  own  strength^  if  they  were  not  supported  and  directed  by 
guilty  chiefs  who  hide  themselves  in  vain  in  the  shadow  of  crime. 
How  many  times  have  not  these  miserable  swindlers  waited  for 
the  effect  of  a  report  on  finances,  in  order  to  calculate  upon  this 
basis  their  infamous  speculations!  How  many  times  immense 
products,  torn  from  the  fortune  of  the  people,  have  they  not  en- 
''iched  all  that  was  most  vile  amongst  men  7  The  wretches! — 
they  dared  to  employ  the  words  of  the  legislator  as  the  text  for 
their  plundering.    They  follow,  they  watch,  often  even  endowed 


NOTES.  9 

with  the  sinister  gift  of  Cassandra,  they  foretel   the  financial 
operations. 

Representatives  of  the  people,  hasten  to  put  an  end  to  this  pro- 
fligacy of  dilapidators  and  their  enormities;  your  commission  is 
occupied  with  this  object  with  great  solicitude,  and  it  considers 
that  it  ought  to  propose  to  you,  as  a  first  expedient,  no  longer  to 
employ  yourselves  with  the  finances  but  in  secret  committee.  This 
measure  was  called  for  by  the  wish  of  the  greater  part  of  our  col- 
leagues; we  thought  that  it  came  within  our  instructions,  and  we 
hasten  to  propose  it  to  you  in  the  following  decree  : — 

The  council  decrees,  that  it  will  form  itself  hereafter  in  a  gene- 
ral committee  whenever  the  reporters  of  this  commission,  or  of 
the  commission  of  finances,  shall  have  the  right  of  speaking. 

Whatever  may  be  your  decision,  representatives  of  the  people, 
I  am  charged  to  ask  of  you  for  Primedi  a  general  committee,  in 
order  to  hear  the  different  reports  in  the  name  of  your  commis- 
sion. I  announce  to  you  that  there  is  one  of  them  ready,  if  you 
desire  at  this  moment  to  form  a  general  committee.  To  the  vote, 
is  demanded  from  all  parts.  The  project  of  Bonaparte  upon  the 
debate  on  finances  is  unanimously  and  immediately  adopted. 

(8)  Sittting  of  the  22d  Vendemiaire.  year  7. 

General  Gmirdan,  actual  President,  addresses  the  following 
letter : — 

Citizen  representatives,  called  to  the  legislative  body  by  the  con- 
fidence of  my  fellow  citizens,  I  was  not  long  in  perceiving  that  I 
was  very  incapable  of  fulfilling  all  the  obligai.ons  which  I  had 
contracted  in  accepting  functions-so  august.  However,  encouraged 
by  your  kindness,  and  the  expressions  of  esteem  with  which  you 
have  several  times  honored  me,  I  should  have  continued  my  legis- 
lative career — I  should  have  endeavored  to  make  up  for  the  feeble- 
ness of  ray  talents  by  my  application  and  my  ardent  love  of  liberty  ; 
for  the  constitution  of  the  year  3,  and  from  the  government  which 
has  emanated  from  it.  But,  citizen  representatives,  the  executive 
directory  has  informed  you  of  the  political  situation  of  the  repub- 
lic; you  are  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  preparing  to  make 
war,  in  order  at  length  to  force  your  enemies  to  make  peace;  you 
have  ordered  an  extraordinary  levy  of  two  hundred  thousand  con- 
scripts, and  you  are  occupied  in  preparing  the  funds  requisite  for 
their  maintenan^'e. 

In  circumstances  where  our  country  calls  her  children  to  its  de- 
fence, I  have  thought  that  I  should  serve  it  more  usefully  in  the  army 
than  in  the  senate.  I  resign  then  in  the  midst  of  you,  legislators,  the 
character  of  representative  of  the  people — I  beg  of  you  to  accept  my 
resignation. 

I  desire.  Citizen  representatives,  that  this  step  on  my  part  maybe 
to  you  a.  fresh  proof  of  my  sincere  attachment  to  the  republic,  and 
of  my  devotion  to  its  service.    Health  and  regard. 

Signed,  Jourdan. 

lAicien  Bonaparte.  We  are  about  to  lose  an  estimable  colleague. 
Our  first  sentiment  is  regret ;  but  to  these  regrets  will  soon  succeed 
a  more  sublime  sentiment :  it  is  for  the  eamp  that  Jourdan  quits  the 
tribune.  The  author  of  the  law  on  military  conscription  should 
give  place  to  the  General  of  Fleurus.    Well !— let  him  depart  sur- 


10  NOTES. 

rounded  by  the  esteem  of  his  colleagues,  and  followed  with  the  con- 
lidence  of  the  republic. 

Enemies,  insatiate  at  their  defeats,  would  they  reckon  upon  in- 
testine divisions'? — the  fools  !— do  they  not  know  that  at  their  ap- 
pearance every  shade  of  opinion  disappears  1  With  one  word  you 
nave  dissipated  this  miserable  hope,  and  new  armies  with  new  re- 
sources are  cwrganized : — Irom  your  bosom  departs  one  who  will  lead 
to  victory,  and  that  not  for  the  first  time,  the  children  of  France. 
Representatives  of  the  people,  whilst  our  brethren  in  arms  shall  run 
over  their  list  of  combats,  we  will  defend  here  the  constitution  of 
the  year  3,  and  we  will  cultivate  the  salutary  union  of  those  powers 
which  constitute  the  strength  of  states.  Certain  that  I  explain  but 
your  sentiments,  I  venture  at  this  moment  to  become  your  organ, 
and  to  render  in  your  nam^e  a  brilliant  testimony  of  esteem  and 
confidence  to  the  colleague  who  is  about  to  leave  us. 

The  council  orders  the  impression  of  six  copies  of  the  letter  and 
the  speech  and  their  insertion  in  the  process  verbal. 

(9l)  Setting  of  the  9th  Messidor,  year  7. 

Texier  Olivier^  Secretary.  Here  is  a  second  message  from  the 
directory  relative  to  the  situation  of  the  republic  and  the  informa- 
tion required.  Perhaps  you  will  decide  to  have  it  read  in  a  secret 
committee. 

Several  members  supported  this  opinion. 

JLiLcien  Bonaparte. — This  message  either  refers  to  diplomatic 
subjects,  or  it  is  an  answer  to  the  information  you  have  asked  for. 
In  the  first  case  I  am  for  the  formation  of  a  committee ;  in  the  sec- 
ond I  claim  publicity.  The  people  and  the  army  expect  a  reply 
relative  to  the  condition  and  wants  of  the  republic — both  must  be 
made  known  to  them. 

I  demand  that  the  message  be  read  in  public. 

A  croiod  of  Members.     Supported, — supported. 

Portiez  de  Voisc.  In  the  first  message  the  directory  announced 
to  you  that  a  second  would  contain  details  which  it  would  be  im- 
portant not  to  make  public. 

I  demand  the  formation  of  a  general  committee. 

It  is  required  that  the  bureau  take  cognizance  of  the  message. 

Grandvialson.  A  wise  and  prudent  intention  has  dictated  the  mo- 
tion of  our  colleague  Texier  ;  but  the  people  have  been  led  to  the 
brink  of  destruction.  No  doubt  the  mes'vage  of  the  directory  indi- 
cates dangers,  their  causes,  the  source  of  the  evil,  and  the  remedy. 
These  objects  require  the  greatest  publicity. 

Texier  read  the  following  message  : — 
Citizen  Representatives — 

The  executive  directory  is  about  to  render  you  an  account  of 
the  state  in  which  it  finds  France. 

The  wounds  of  the  republic  are  deep ;  and  great  danger  surrounds 
it. — (at  these  words  the  speaker  is  interrupted  by  the  renewed  de- 
mand for  a  general  committee.) 

Jourdan. — I  demand  that  the  reading  be  continued  in  public, 
"our  commission  has  its  labors  to  present  to  you  after  the  reading 
of  the  message.  You  are  going  to  ask  of  the  people  of  France  men 
and  money;  the  people  must  know  what  are  its  wants. 

The  secretary  continues  the  reading  of  the  me.ssage. 

The  directory,  it  is  there  said,  cannot  dissemble  to  you  the  dan- 
gers which  surround  the  republic,  because  from  their  imminent  na- 


NOTES.  11 

ture  only  will  y.ou  be  able  to  obtain  those  resources  which  can  save 
it,  those  powerful  measures  which  ought  to  secure  its  greatness, 
and  which  even  the  efforts  of  our  enemies,  at  the  present  day,  at-' 
lest  the  wonder  which  has  struck  them. 

It  is  too  true  that  a  fatal  system,  than  an  unjust  prepossession,  has 
removed  from  functions  and  places  citizens  the  most  capable  of 
maintaining  the  spirit  of  the  nation  up  to  the  elevation  of  its  des- 
tinies, that  almost  every  where  the  administrations  are  formed  of 
weak  and  careless  men,  or  of  the  enemies  of  the  republican  regime, 
and  require  to  be  entirely  reorganized;  public  spirit,  the  support 
or  depression  of  which  depends  principally  on  the  good  or  bad  for- 
mation of  the  constituted  authorities,  is  deteriorated  and  corrupted : 
an  unhappy  influence  has  produced  alike  a  reaction  ^ipon  the  tribu- 
nals, and  the  temple  of  justice  has  too  often  become  the  unhallowed 
asylum  of  robbers,  covered  with  the  blood  of  republicans. 

It  is  too  true,  that  ceasing  to  be  impressed  with  the  salutary  ter- 
ror of  the  laws,  without  which  there  is  no  government ;  that  em- 
boldened by  the  weakness  or  collusion  of  the  public  functionaries 
who  ought  to  watch  them,  robbers  that  infest  the  interior  of  the  re- 
public have  re-appeared  with  fresh  boldness ;  that  at  the  signal 
given  by  the  assassins  of  Rastadt,  they  have  raised  again  the  bloody 
banner  of  revolt.  United  at  present  in  bands,  they  infest  and  desolate 
several  departments  of  the  West  and  of  the  South;  the  purchasers 
of  the  national  wealth  are  attacked,  as  are  also  travellers,  and  pub- 
lic carriages  upon  the  high  roads;  the  proceeds  of  the  taxes  are 
plundered  in  the  chests  upon  the  roads,  and  citizens  distinguisheil 
for  their  attachment  to  the  republic  are  massacred  in  their  own 
houses.  And  all  these  crimes  are  committed  in  the  name  of  the 
altar  and  the  throne.  A  civil  war  is  ready  to  be  kindled  up  at 
several  points,  to  aid  by  its  diversions  and  its  plagues  the  external 
war. 

And  a  blind  want  of  foresight  has  given  time  to  our  enemies  to 
embolden  themselves  by  a  new  coalition,  which  has  enabled  this 
impious  coalition  to  recruit  itself  from  all  the  parts  with  fresh 
hordes,  and  has  left  our  triumphant  armies  to  be  dissolved  even  on 
the  field  of  victory.  Whilst  they  were  left  to  be  amused  with  hopes 
at  Rastadt,  they  neglected  the  only  means  of  securing  peace,  that 
by  being  actively  prepared  for  war — which  they  should  have  fore- 
seen, and  which  we  must  carry  on. 

We  will  maintain  this  odious  war,  and  the  incoherent  assemblage 
of  our  actual  enemies  shall  meet  the  fate  of  the  first  coalition. 

But  to  the  extraordinary  eflforts  of  our  enemies  we  must  hasten  to 
oppose  the  all-powerful  efforts  of  the  friends  of  liberty. 

Citizen  representatives,  our  frontiers  are  menaced  ;  we  must  de- 
fend them;  we  must  secure  the  subsistence  of  armies  exposed  for 
too  long  a  time  ;  we  must  arm  new  battalions  ;  we  must  restore  the 
means  of  offensive  operations  to  our  brave  legions,  and  make  our 
enemies  respect  even  the  soil  of  our  allies. 

We  must  encourage  the  interior  by  the  organization  of  an  im- 
posing force,  and  terminate  this  war  of  assassinations,  which  stains 
the  land  of  liberty  with  the  blood  of  the  friends  of  the  republic. 
The  insufficiency  and  inadequacy  of  the  coming  in  of  the  taxes,  is 
felt  in  the  most  painful  manner,  throwing  every  department  of  the 
public  service  into  a  state  of  disorganization,  the  disastrous  results 
of  which  are  incalculable,  and  however  imperious  the  circum- 


12  NOTES. 

Stances  in  which  we  find  ourselves  placed  may  demand  extraordina- 
ry supplies,  you  already  feel  the  necessity  for  them. 

In  fact,  representatives  of  the  people,  the  directory  ought  to  say 
to  you,  to  the  nation  at  large,  that  the  political  body  is  menaced 
with  a  total  dissolution,  if  you  do  not  hasten  to  re-temper  all  the 
springs  of  its  organization  and  of  its  movement. 

Our  evils  are  great,  no  doubt,  but  our  resources  are  those  of  a 
generous  people,  whose  misfortunes  augment  in  strength,  and 
whose  reverses  only  fortify  their  courage — a  people  worthy  of  lib- 
erty; and  who  are  never  more  powerful,  more  terrible  to  their 
enemies,  than  when  they  dare  to  flatter  themselves  that  they  have 
conquered. 

Our  misfo''tunes  originate  principally  from  the  bad  use  or  the 
abandonment  of  our  means. 

The  means  of  the  French  republic  are  always  thesame,  they  are 
those  with  which  it  has  hitherto  conquered  the  most  numerous  ene- 
mies. The  first  of  all  these  means,  the  most  powerful,  that  which 
gives  a  value  to  others,  is  the  energy  of  the  people,  their  devotion 
to  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty,  to  that  cause  for  which  they  have 
made  so  many  sacrifices. 

At  your  voice,  representatives  of  the  people,  at  that  of  the  direc- 
tory, which  has  with  you  but  the  same  mind,  the  same  soul,  Eu- 
rope will  see  this  energy  exhibit  itself  more  terrible,  more  heroic 
than  ever.  The  coalition  with  which  we  have  to  contend,  is  the 
last  effort  of  our  combined  enemies.  They  shall  be  the  last;  the 
efl^orts  which  the  republic  is  going  to  put  forth  to  throw  down  this 
menacing  coalition  will  force  the  powers  which  compose  it  to  sub- 
mit to  the  laws  of  justice  and  peace. 

The  directory  adds  to  this  message,  citizen  representatives,  the 
reports  of  the  ministers  on  the  different  subjects  to  which  your  at- 
tention has  been  called.  You  will  there  find  the  detail  of  the  facts 
of  which  it  presents  to  you  the  results  ;  you  will  there  see  the  wants 
of  the  republic,  and  some  indications  of  the  means  by  which  they 
may  be  attained. 

The  council  orders  the  impression  of  twelve  copies. 

(10)  Sitting  of  the  9th  Messidor,  year  7. 

First  project  of  the  decree. 

The  council  of  five  hundred  charges  its  commission  "named  toin- 
sure  the  service  of  the  years  7  and  8,  to  present  tridi  next  a  project 
of  resolution  on  the  means  of  realizing  a  loan  of  one  hundred  mil- 
lions, and  to  insure  the  re-payment  of  it. 

Second  project  of  the  decree. 

The  council  of  five  hundred  charges  its  military  commission  to 
present  to  it  dnodi  next,  a  report  on  the  organization  of  the  battal- 
ions and  companies  whose  formation  is  ordered  by  the  resolution 
of  this  day. 

The  projects  of  resolution  and  of  decrees  are  adopted. 

The  council  adopts  unanimously  the  project  presented,  and 
hears  immediately  the  second  reading  of  it. 

It  charges  it  special  commissioners  to  present  to  it  Primedi  the 
means  for  carrying  into  effect  this  project. 

(11)  Sitting  of  the  9th  Messidor,  year  7. 

Francais  De  Nantes. — Your  commission  has  charged  me  to  lay 
before  you  the  following  project  of  an  address  to  the  French  na- 
tion :— 


;  NOTES.  13 

The  legislative  body  to  the  French  nation — 
Frenchmen — A  system,  followed  by  the  majority  of  the  execu- 
tive directory,  sad  and  deplorable  fruit  of  the  want  of  foresight,  of 
error,  of  ignorance,  which  the  treason  of  several  agents,  and  which 
the  corruption  of  a  great  number  of  others,  would  have  made  still 
worse,  compromised  the  safety  of  the  republic  within  and  without; 
the  existence  of  the  purest  republicans,  and  the  sacred  principles  of 
the  revolution. 

In  this  great  danger  of  the  state,  without  considering  that  of  our 
personal  situation,  placed  in  the  first  degree  of  the  political  order, 
stipulating  for  the  interest  of  the  greatest  people  in  the  world,  and 
those  of  the  allied  republics;  in  the  emotions  with  which  such 
great  objects  struck  us  on  all  sides,  we  thought  only  of  the  great 
and  sublime  cause  which  your  confidence  has  charged  us  to  defend, 
and  we  swear  to  you,  by  our  address  of  the  22d  Praireal  last,  to 
save  you  or  to  perish.  We  have  kept  our  oath  to  you.  The  events 
of  the  28th,  29th  and  SOth  Praireal  last  are  known  to  you.  The 
French  people  and  the  legislative  body  have  triumphed  with  the 
constitution  without  occasioning  any  shock.  - 

A  new  directory  filled  with. this  patriotic  couragc^which  was  al- 
ways the  presage  of  victory,  has  issued  from  this  political  crisis. — 
The  reins  of  government  are  in  firm  republican  hands — rely  with 
confidence  on  the  first  authorities.  They  will  always  respect  the 
constitution  which  you  have  given  to  yourselves. 

Frenchmen  ! — your  frontiers  are  menanced  with  a  neighboring 
invasion — men,  money  and  arms ;  this  is  what  is  required — this  is 
indispensable  to  your  safety. 

It  is  to  you,  republicans  that  we  address  ourselves  !  When  you 
were  compressed  by  an  absurd  and  tyranical  regime,  by  which  the 
shoots  of  the  purest  republicanism  were  treated  as  anarchical  con- 
spiracy, you  feared  to  give  yourselves  up  to  your  zeal ;  but  when 
we  swore  fidelity  to  you,  it  is  for  you  to  swear  to  us  the  victory.  Go 
and  reinforce  our  armies  which  wait  for  you,  and  associate  your- 
selves with  their  immortal  renown. 

Sing  the  hymns  of  liberty  from  you  battalions  in  accordance  witn 
the  law,  and  let  a  happy  movement,  directed  upon  our  frontiers, 
destroy  this  impious  coalition,  and  avenge  the  blood  of  our  pleni- 
potentiaries. 

Employ  with  zeal  and  wisdom  the  right  which  the  constitution 
assures  to  j'^ou,  to  unite  youselves.  Be  on  your  guard  against  stran- 
gers, who  would  endeavor  to  carry  you  beyond  jthe  line  of  the 
laws,  and  the  respect  due  to  public  authority.  Do  not  suffer  your 
constitutional  charter  to  be  outraged  or  violated  ;  it  is  our  safe- 
guard and  our  rallyingpoint.  Invigorate  our  republican  institutions; 
they  give  force  and  grandeur  to  the  state  ;  they  disengage  minds 
by  little  and  little  from  the  hideous  swaddling  clothes  of  supersti- 
tion, elevate  them  to  those  liberal  principles  which  redouble  ener- 
gy, and  re-animate  courage;  they  are  most  guilty  who  insult  these 
peaceable  societies,  who  profess  the  most  pure  morality,  and  scat- 
ter forth  the  most  happy  seeds  of  a  fraternal  reconciliation  and  of' 
a  universal  benevolence. 

Wo  to  those  who  would  conspire  against  the  state,  who  would 
urge  the  citizens  to  a  rebellion,  to  the  violation  of  the  laws  by  what- 
ever means  they  are  able  !  Wo  to  those  who  practic<?  re-actions — 
no  more  revenge,  no  mt)re  terror,  no  more  arbitrary  regime,  no 
3 


14  NOTES. 

more  tyranny — liberty  and  the  constitution,  this  is  our  duty  to 
all. 

Republicans,  we  fulfil  ours  with  zeal  and  firmness ;  it  is  for  your 
courage  to  ensure  the  triumph  of  the  republic  without,  and  the 
reign  of  a  wise  liberty  within. 

The  council  adopts  the  digest. 

Lucien  Bonaparte. — I  demand  that  the  council  make  a  resolution 
to  send  the  message  of  the  directory  and  this  address  to  all  the  de- 
partments and  to  the  army. 

It  is  right  that  they  should  know  the  truth,  and  the  causes  of 
their  reverses — that  they  should  know  that  they  have  not  ceased  to 
conquer  for  a  moment,  but  from  the  most  profound  folly  or  the 
blackest  treason,  which  left  them  to  fail  of  the  most  necessary  ob- 
jects, because  they  had  not  at  their  head  generals  to  whom  multi- 
plied victories  had  created  a  right  to  the  confidence  of  the  soldier. 
It  is  essential  to  the  army  that  this  state  of  things  exist  no  longer  ; 
that  the  authorities  march  together  in  concert  with  redoubled 
zeal;  that  the  nation  responds  to  this  appeal,  and  that  victory  will 
then  be  always  certain  under  the  colors  of  the  republic. 

The  proposition  of  Lucien  Bonaparte  is  adopted. 

(12)  Sitting  of  the  24th  Messidor,  year  7. 

Montellier  then  presents  himself  to  the  tribune  to  make  the  re- 
port upon  the  measures  necessary  to  reach  the  dilapidators  of  the 
public  wealth,  and  the  means  whereby  conspirators  may  be  seized, 
their  abettors  and  accomplices. 

It  ^ives  an  account  at  first  of  the  deep  impression  which  the  reso- 
lution of  the  30th  Praireal  has  made  upon  the  people.  It  was  the 
result  of  opinion,  that  immortal  power  which  is  sometimes  quenched, 
but  which  strikes  always  in  a  bold  manner.  It  abandoned  by  little 
and  little  the  iriumvers,  and  delivered  them  up  alone  and  without 
defence  to  the  movement  which  has  overthrown  them  ;  but  it  is  of 
consequence  that  the  results  of  these  movements  be  prompt,  were 
it  only  to  keep  off"  those  political  oscillations  and  stragglings  always 
dangerous.  The  commission  hastens,  therefore,  to  submit  its  de- 
terminations. The  reporter  makes  here  the  analysis  of  the  peti- 
tions which  have  been  referred  to  the  commission.  Grave  impu- 
tations result  from  them,  if  they  are  well  founded,  against  the  ex- 
members  of  the  directory,  Rewbell,  Merlin,  Treilhard,  Reveilliere, 
Scherer,  who  are  there  designated  as  the  authors  or  accomplices 
of  a  conspiracy  which  has  brought  the  republic  to  the  brink  of  de- 
struction. 

They  are  denounced — 1st.  As  the  authors  and  accomplices  of  a 
conspiracy  which  has  placed  the  republic  in  the  greatest  danger. 

2d.  As  having  transported  to  the  deserts  of  Arabia  forty  thou- 
sand men  forming  the  elite  of  our  armies,  the  General  Bonaparte, 
and  with  him  the  flower  of  our  Savans,  and  our  men  of  letters,  and 
our  artists. 

3d.  As  having  pillaged  the  arsenals  and  sold  at  a  low  price  arms 
and  military  stores. 

4th.  As  having,  by  force  of  arms,  overturned  the  Cisalpine  con- 
stitution, which  had  been  guaranteed  by  the  legislative  body. 

5th.  As  guilty  of  an  outrage  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple in  endeavoring  to  influence  the  elections  by  intrigue,  menaces 
and  force ;  and  in  leaving  unpunished  the  directorial  commissioners 
denounced  by  tha  legislative  body,  ani  especially  that  of  the  Sarthe, 


NOTES.  15 

After  having  signalized  the  guilty,  the  commission  has  sought 
the  means  of  reaching  them  through  the  constitutional  dis^positions. 
The  chain  of  proof  may  require  the  accusationof  individuals,  with 
respect  to  whom  there  exists  a  particular  legislation,  but  a  special 
commission  being  charged  to  examine  the  law  of  the  10th  Vende- 
miaire,  year  4,  it  will  not  be  a -question  in  this  report,  it  will  only 
present  to  the  council  the  following  question  to  be  resolved:  The 
article  3  of  the  constitution  which  does  not  deliver  up  legislators 
to  the  ordinary  tribunals  until  thirty  days  after  their  functions  have 
ceased,  ought  it  to  be  limited  to  them  alone,  or  applied  to  the  ex- 
members  of  the  directory  1  As  for  the  rest,  it  is  acknowledged  by 
a  legislative  enactment,  in  the  affair  of  Baboeuf,  that  when  an  ac- 
cused is  juslic'able  to  a  particular  tribunal,  he  takes  with  him  his 
co-accused — thus  there  is  less  difhculiy.  We  must  again  examine 
if  the  addresses  may  be  considered  as  denunciations  against  a 
member  of  the  legislative  body,  which  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  116th  article  of  the  constitution,  should  be  written  and  signed. 
The  commission  has  thought  that  the  affirmative  could  not  make 
any  difficulty,  since  the  addresses  are  written  and  signed  individual- 
ly. From  that  time  its  attributions  have  ceased;  there  has  only  re- 
mained to  propose  to  the  council  to  form  itself  in  a  general  com- 
mittee to  examine  if  the  denunciation  made  against  one  of  its  mem- 
bers shall  be  rejected  or  admitted. 

Representatives  of  the  people,  continues  the  reporter,  in  conclu- 
sion, opinion  has  been  struck  by  the  revolution  of  the  30th  Praire- 
al ;  patriotism  has  exalted  herself  at  the  voice  of  the  legislative 
body  ;  let  it  not  wander  without  a  guide, — let  the  directory  speak — 
let  it  act,  that  it  may  declare  its  character.  In  political  crises,  iti« 
towards  those  who  have  authority  in  their  hands  that  all  eyes  ars 
turned;  it  is  for  them  to  respond  to  the  general  expectation,  t» 
choose  well  their  co-operators,  for  the  public  safety  is  especially 
in  the'r  hands;  to  grasp,  in  fact,  the  helm  with  a  firm  hand,  ani 
to  march  boldly.  You,  representatives,  will  not  leave  them  iso- 
lated. 

Men  whose  conceptions  embrace  all  the  aspects  of  our  situation, 
must  mature,  put  in  motion,  and  dispose  in  order,  all  those  legisla- 
tive measures  which  circumstances  may  render  necessary,  that 
patriotism  may  have  a  focus,  as  well  as  royalism  a  centre,  and 
then  we  shall  be  conquerors  as  soon  as  we  show  ourselves. 

The  commission  announces  that  it  will  forthwith  present  mea- 
sures in  order  to  reach  the  dilapidators,  and  proposes  to  the  coun- 
cil to  form  itself  into  a  committee  to  deliberate  upon  the  denunci- 
ations which  have  been  presented  to  it. 

This  proposition  is  adopted,  and  the  committee  is  immediately 
formed. 

(13)  In  the  centre  of  the  hall  of  the  sittings  of  the  council  of  five 
hundred,  facing  the  tribune,  there  was  a  column  supporting  the 
book  of  the  constitution  of  the  year  3.  This  book  in  marble,  was 
surrounded  by  garlands  of  oak  and  laurel. 

(14)  Speech  delivered  by  the  citizen  Sieves,  president  of  the  ex- 
ecuiive  directory,  at  the  Champ  de  Mars,  the  10th  Thermidor. 

We  celebrate  to-day  the  fete  of  liberty.  All  that  has  been  ima- 
gined and  executed  for  it,  ousht  at  this  moment  to  be  recalled  to  our 
remembrance ;  the  precursory  labors  of  philosophy  which  struggled 
with  so  much  constancy  against  a  multitude  of  prejudices  j  the 


16  NOTES. 

more  immediate  labors  of  some  citizens  before  even  they  had  a 
country,  who,  towards  the  epoch  of  1789,  awakened  in  the  hearts 
of  Frenchmen  the  sentiment,  almost  extinguished,  of  the  rights  of 
the  nation ;  the  genero/iis  efforts,  the  creative  conceptions  of  this  first 
national  assembly  whose  errors  cannot  obliterate  their  important 
services,  and  by  which  has  been  insured  for  ever  the  wrath  of  all 
the  enemies  of  the  revolution  ;  the  ardent  energy,  so  prolific  in 
successive  assemblies  which  profitmg  by  the  impulsion  given  of  a 
new  civic  force;  the  faults,  virtues,  misfortunes,  lights,  founded  at 
length  the  republican  constitution,  where  French  liberties  have 
taken  refuge.  The  devotion  was  the  more  meritorious,  as  it  was 
the  most  obscure  of  the  great  number  of  good  citizens  who  were 
always  ready  at  the  call  of  their  country,  and  who  have  constantly 
made  for  it  the  greatest  sacrifices,  without  considering  themselves 
entitled  to  occupy  the  public  with  it,  and  more  especially  to  menace 
it  with  their  civism.  This  glory  without  a  cloud  of  the  French 
armies,  which,  always  great,  always  indefatigable,  have  extorted 
admiration,  even  in  their  reverses,  from  all  the  powers  of  Europe: 
so  many  deeds,  so  many  prodigies,  so  many  events  unheard  of  un- 
til these  latter  times,  will  live  eternally  in  the  memory  of  mankind. 
The  victory  gained  over  a  long  and  bloody  tyranny  will  also  live — 
the  downfall  of  which  we  this  day  more  particularly  call  to  mind, 
I  will  not  re-produce  here  an  afflicting  picture,  traced  so  often  with 
intentions  to  opposite.  After  six  years  it  still  oppresses  the  soul 
and  distracts  the  thoughts.  What  a  lesson  I — men  without  genius, 
but  not  without  boldness,  drew  from  the  name  of  liberty,  which 
they  profaned,  an  incomprehensible  force,  a  monstrous  power  of 
which  there  has  been  no  example,  and  which  I  swear  by  the  re- 
public shall  never  return. 

Always  jealous,  always  cruel,  they  could  only  see  in  the  talents, 
generous  virtues,  and  ail  the  natural  affections,  but  crimes  worthy 
of  death.  Not  less  stupid  than  ferocious,  they  created  obstacles, 
destroyed  means,  provoked  at  length  resistance,  and  punished 
France  with  their  incapacity  to  govern.  Formidable,  especially, 
to  the  tried  friends  of  liberty,  they  caused  to  perish  under  the  iron 
of  the  executioner,  or  to  sink  under  their  own  misfortunes,  m.any 
republicans  so  pure,  so  enlightened,  so  magnanimous,  whose  irre- 
parable loss  we  still  weep  over,  and  whose  country  ought  ever  to 
mourn  for.  They  were  thus  the  scourges,  the  unfeeling  devasta- 
tors of  the  republic  of  which  they  dared  to  proclaim  themselves  the 
sai^ours. 

These  tyrants  were  overthrown  the  9th  Thermidor.  Honor 
them  to  this  memorable  day.  No  Frenchman  can  abjure  it  with- 
out shame.  Honor  to  the  national  convention,  which  breaking  at 
once  its  chains,  revived  liberty  for  all ! — Honor  to  the  epoch, 
when  that  numerous  portion  of  our  fellow-citizens  was  at  length 
disabused,  upon  whom  they  had  spread  the  darkness  of  error  and 
ignorance,  and  who  by  an  effect,  even  of  the  natural  love  of  jus- 
tice and  liberty,  could  not  bring  themselves  to  believe  that  in  the 
name  of  these  virtues,  Frenchmen  were  become  assassins  and  ty- 
rants. But  as  an  indellible  disgrace  to  these  men,  who  cruelly 
abusing  a  victory  sufficiently  unnatural,  they  hasten  to  persecute 
those  even,  who,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  had  restored  life  and 
liberty.  Ignominy  upon  those  cowardly  persecutors,  who,  by  the 
aid  of  some  words  exchanged  in  the  terrible  vocabulary  of  calum- 


NOTES.  17 

ny,  substituted  with  a  facility  so  dreadful,  a  new  tyranny  upon  the 
one  which  had  just  been  cast  down.  There  are  then  men  whom 
no  law  will  touch,  no  favor  soften,  no  indulgence  disarm — men, 
who  hardly  raised  from  the  oppression  under  which  ihey  groaned, 
hasten  to  arm  their  tongues  with  calumny,  and  their  hands  wiih  a 
poniard,  against  those  whom  they  invoked  but  the  other  day  as 
liberators  !  May  this  unhappy  reflection  apply  but  to  times  which 
are  gone  by ! 

Thus  we  have  seen  tarnished  the  lustre  of  the  brightest  days  of 
the  revolution,  and  the  friends  of  liberty  have  been  constantly 
bruised  between  contending  factions. 

Citizens,  these  calamitous  times  will  not  occur  again.  Your  re- 
presentatives, your  magistrates,  ought  to  secure  you  from  it ;  they 
will  know  how  to  prevent,  until  there  is  a  necessity,  those  crises 
which  shake  always  that  which  they  repair.  Cur  situation  pre- 
sents difficulties  no  doubt,  but  many  are  pleased  to  exaggerate  un- 
reasonably. In  this  respect  the  hopes  of  hatred,  and  the  miserable 
calculations  of  fear,  will  be  disappointed  :  for  our  strength  is  supe- 
rior to  our  dangers.  Our  transient  reverses  are  a  delay,  but  not  a 
defeat.  Our  armies  have  been  able  to  preserve  intact  the  sacred 
territory  of  the  republic ;  they  are  re-inforced  at  this  moment  w-ith 
bright  and  valorous  youth,  the  fresh  hope  of  their  country. 

Go,  young  conscripts,  and  rejoin  your  predecessors  in  the  career 
of  glory;  here  we  will  watch  over  your  families.  Let  no  fear  as 
to  the  objects  of  your  affections  hinder  the  flight  of  your  courage. 
"We  abhor,  as  much  as  you,  every  thing  that  is  contrary  to  good 
order  and  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  citizen. 

No  more  illegal  vengeance,  but  the  firm  and  calm  action  of  the 
law, — no  more  re-actions  whatever  ;  the  government  exists  for  jus- 
tice, as  you  do  for  victory  !  It  knows  its  duty — it  desires  to  fulfil 
it.  When  triumphing  over  the  enemies  of  our  country  you  shall 
return  again  to  your  hearths,  you  will  there  experience,  with  the 
national  gratitude  and  the  liberties  you  will  have  preserved,  repose, 
security,  the  guarantee  of  your  property;  in  a  word,  all  the  benefits 
which  have  been  promised  to  you,  and  which  we  know  ho\v  to 
insure  to  you. 

Long  live  the  Repiiblic  ! 

(15)  Silting  of  the  24th  Messidor,  year  7. 

Latv  of  Hostages. 

Article  the  1st.  When  a  department,  canton  or  commune,  is 
notoriously  in  a  disturbed  state,  the  executive  directory  proposes  to 
the  legislative  body  to  declare  it  comprised  in  the  followang  dis- 
positions : — 

2d,  The  relations  of  emigrants,  their  connections,  and  the  hereto- 
fore nobles  comprised  in  the  laws  of  the  3d  Brumaire,  year  4,  and 
9th  Frimaire,  year  6  :  the  grandfathers,  grandmothers,  fathers,  and 
mothers  of  individuals,  who  being  neither  ex-nobles  nor  relations 
of  emigrants,  are,  nevertheless,  notoriously  known  as  making  part 
of  the  assemblages  or  bands  of  assassins,  are  personally  and  civilly 
responsible  for  the  assassinations  andplunderings  committed  in  the 
interior  in  hatred  to  the  republic,  in  the  departments,  cantons  or 
communes  declared  to  be  in  a  disturbed  state. 

3d.  Immediately  after  the  publication  of  the  law  rendered  in  ex- 
ecution of  the  first  article,  the  central  administrations  shall  take 
hostages  in  the  classes  aforesaid  designated,  in  the  communes, 
R 


18  NOTES. 

cantons  and  departments  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  disturbance ; 
nevertheless,  in  the  event  of  imminent  disturbances,  although  the 
department,  canton  or  commune  should  not  yet  be  declared  by  the 
law  to  be  in  a  disturbed  state,  the  same  administrations  are  provision- 
ally authorized  to  take  hostages,  they  will  inform  the  executive  di- 
rectory of  it  within  twenty-four  hours. 

4th.  Hostages  shall  be  established  at  their  own  expense,  in  the 
same  place  in  a  commune  of  the  department,  under  the  inspection 
ot  the  central  and  municipal  administrations,  and  of  commissioners 
of  the  executive  directory  near  these  same  administrations. 

5th.  Hostages,  who  in  the  ten  days  of  the  advertisement  which 
shall  be  notified  to  them  by  a  gend'arme,  do  not  repair  to  the  place 
indicated  by  the  administrations,  shall  be  taken  there  by  an  armed 
force  ;  those  who  make  their  escape  shall  be  personally  assimilated 
to  the  emigrants,  considered  and  treated  as  such. 

6th,  The  aforesaid  dispositions  are  excepted,  the  former  nobles 
and  relations  of  emigrants  who  have  constantly  filled  public  func- 
tions by  the  nomination  of  the  people,  or  who  are  in  the  exceptions 
foreseen  in  the  laws  of  the  3d  Brumairc,  year  4,  and  9lh  Frimaire, 
year  6. 

7th.  The  central  administrations  shall  draw  up  in  the  month  of 
the  publication  of  the  law  which  shall  appoint  the  communes,  can- 
tons, or  departments,  in  which  the  present  law  shall  be  applicable, 
in  conformity  with  the  first  article,  a  list  of  all  the  individuals 
subject  to  the  personal  and  civil  guarantee  consecrated  by  ihe 
second  article. 

8th.  The  central  administrations  will  include  in  this  list  all  the 
individuals  deiiominated  by  the  second  article,  domiciliated  in 
their  respective  arrondissements  at  the  epoch  of  the  Isl  of  Septem- 
ber, 1791. 

9th.  Ifa  citizen  be  assassinated,  having  been  since  the  revolu- 
tion, or  being  actually  a  public  functionary,  or  a  defender  of  his 
country,  or  a  purchaser  or  possessor  of  national  domains,  the 
directory,  after  having  consulted  the  central  administrators,  is 
charged  to  transport  out  of  the  territory  of  the  republic,  within  two 
decades  from  the  assassination,  four  of  the  individuals  designated 
by  the  second  article  for  each  person  assassinated  ;  taken,  in  the 
first  place,  from  amongst  the  noble  relations  of  emigrants ;  second- 
ly, from  among  the  heretofore  nobles ;  and  successively  from 
among  the  relations  of  individuals  forming  a  part  of  the  meetings. 

The  carrying  off  forcibly  of  the  citizens  above  designated,  of 
their  fathers,  mothers,  wives,  or  of  their  children,  will  occasion  the 
same  penalty  of  transportation,  and  besides  to  the  fines  and  indem- 
nities hereafter  fixed,  if  they  are  not  set  at  liberty  within  twenty- 
four  hours  from  the  carrying  off.  ' 

In  all  cases  of  the  carrying  off  of  one  of  the  persons  above  de- 
nominated, the  securities  shall  be  subject  to  a  fine  of  six  thousand 
franks,  without,  nevertheless,  derogating  from  the  penalties  pre- 
scribed by  the  code  of  crimes  and  pains  against  the  authors  of  the 
crime. 

10th.  The  pain  of  transportation  against  hostages  shall  not  take 
place  when  one  of  them  shall  have  formerly  denounced  and  pro- 
cured the  arrest  of  individuals  who  shall  be  afterwards  declared 
guilty  of  crime. 

11th.  Sequestration  shall  be  put  upon  the  goods  of  hostages 


NOTES.  19 

transported,  and  shall  continue  until  the  accomplishment  of  the 
condemnations  pronounced  against  them,  and  until  the  representa- 
tion of  a  legal  certificate  verifying  that  they  submit  to  their  trans- 
portation. 

r2th.  The  infraction  of  the  transportation  shall  be  assimilated  to 
emigration,  for  the  personal  effects  only  of  the  transported. 

13th.  Independently  of  the  pain  of  transportation  pronounced  by 
the  tenth  article  aforesaid,  individuals  denominated  in  the  second 
article  shall  be  respectively  in  each  department  civilly  and  pri- 
vately responsible  in  a  fine  of  five  thousand  franks  for  each  indi- 
vidual denominated  in  the  ninth  article,  whether  assassinated 
alone,  or  in  an  action,  or  in  any  other  manner  whatever. 

14ih.  The  fine  of  five  thousand  franks  shall  be  paid  within  fif- 
teen days,  at  the  utmost,  from  the  assassination  or  the  carrying  off", 
and  shall  be  placed  in  the  treasury  of  the  receiver-general  on  sim- 
ple decrees  of  the  central  administrations,  which  shall  pronounce, 
on  the  remittance  of  the  process  verbal,  written  down  either  by  the 
municipal  agents  or  the  commissioners  of  police,  or  by  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  or  by  the  commanders  of  the  armed  force. 

15th.  Besides  the  fine  of  five  thousand  franks  placed  in  tlie  pub- 
lic treasury,  the  said  individuals  expres-sed  in  the  second  article 
shall  be  civilly  and  privately  guarantees,  and  responsible  for  an 
indemnity  which  shall  not  be  less  than  the  sum  of  six  thousand 
franks  in  favor  c'^the  widow,  and  of  three  thousand  franks  for  each 
of  the  children  of  tI^  person  assassinated. 

16th.  Citizens  of  tne  quality  designated  in  the  ninth  article  who, 
mutilated,  shall  survive  their  wounds,  shall  be  entitled  to  an  in- 
demnity not  less  than  six  thousand  franks. 

17th.  Citizens  who  shall  be  in  execution  of  a  particular  mi.ssion 
given  to  them  b)'^  a  civil  authority,  or  by  a  military  order,  devoteil 
to  the  search  of  returned  emigrants,  of  transported  priests,  or  sub- 
ject to  transportation  of  assassins,  or  wh-o  may  be  assassinated  or 
mutilated  in  the  course  or  at  the  termination  of  this  mission,  or 
military  order,  shall  be  entitled,  they,  their  wives,  and  their  child- 
ren, to  the  same  indemnities  as  above. 

18th.  The  indemnittes  aforesaid  shall  be  acquitted  within  ten 
days  after  the  degree  of  the  central  administration. 

19th.  Individuals  comprised  in  the  second  article  are  equally,  in 
each  department,  civilly  and  wholly  responsible,  as  well  towards 
the  republic  as  towards  private  persons,  for  the  abductions,  gather- 
ings, exactions  of  farm-rents,  spoliations  of  public  moneys,  as 
also  of  burnings,  degradations,  and  pillagings  committed  upon 
properties.  • 

20th.  The  indemnities  resulting  from  crimes  comprised  in  the 
preceding  article  shall  be  regulated  by  a  decree  of  the  central  ad- 
ministrations in  the  said  days  which  shall  follow  the  crime,  and  be 
acquitted  within  the  ten  days  following  ;  they  shall  be  equivalent 
to  the  things  pillaged,  burnt,  or  destroyed.  The  securities  shall 
besides  be  held  liable  to  a  penalty  to  the  public  treasury  equal  to 
tke  value  of  the  said  things. 

21st.  Thtt  indemnities  due  to  the  nation  on  account  of  the  carry- 
ing off  of  the  public  moneys,  of  burning-s,  degradations,  or  pilhiging 
of  the  national  properties,  shall  be  paid  into  the  respective  treasu- 
ries which  refer  to  the  things  pillaged  or  destroyed. 

22d.  The  central  administration^i  ^hall  reg^ulate  the  indemnities 


20  NOTES.  ] 

and  fines  after  the  examination  of  the  process  verbal  digested  by  the 
municipal  agents  or  commissioners  of  police,  or  judges  of  the  peace, 
or  commanding  the  armed  force  according  lo  the  informations  they 
will  think  proper  to  take. 

23d.  The  municipal  agents,  or  commissioners  of  police,  justices 
of  the  peace,  and  commanders  of  the  armed  force,  shall  be  bound 
to  draw  up  their  process  verbal,  and  within  three  days  from  the 
commission  of  the  crime ;  but  when  the  crime  shall  have  been 
committed  in  the  commune,  where  the  municipal  agent  or  commis- 
sioner of  police,  commander  of  the  armed  force  and  justice  of  the 
peace,  reside,  the  process  verbal  shall  be  written  down  conjointly 
Dy  the  first,  and  separately  by  the  justice  of  the  peace:  it  must  be 
addressed  to  the  central  adn-inistration  the  fourth  day  after  the 
commission  of  the  crime. 

24th.  The  municipal  agents  or  commissioners  of  police,  judges 
of  the  peace,  and  commanders  of  the  armed  force,  who  shall  not 
write  down  or  send  their  process  verbal  in  the  periods  fixed  by  the 
preceding  article,  shall  individually  incur  a  penalty  of  three  hun- 
dred franks  each. 

25:h.  The  penalties  named  in  articles  thirteen,  twenty,  and 
twenty-fourth,  shall  be  placed  in  the  treasury  of  the  receiver-gene- 
ral of  the  department,  who  will  open  a  particular  account  for  this 
purpose,  which  is  to  be  specially  applied  to  citizens  aiding  in 
arresting  an  emigrant,  or  a  priest  returned  from  transportation,  or 
subject  to  transportation,  or  an  individual  forming  a  part  of  the 
bands  of  assassins  marked  upon  the  list. 

26th.  The  rewards  mentioned  in  the  preceding  article  are  fixed; 
that  is  to  say,  for  an  emigrant  or  a  priest  returned  from,  or  subject 
to  transportation,  or  a  chief  of  assassins,  the  sum  of  from  three 
hundred  to  two  thousand  four  hundred  franks;  and  for  other  indi- 
viduals making  part  of  the  bands  of  assassins,  from  two  hundred  to 
six  hundred  franks.  These  rewards  shall  be  regulated  by  the  cen- 
tral administrations. 

27th.  The  gend'armes  and  national  guards,  sedentary  or  actively 
employedfagainst  the  bands  of  assassins,  shall  be  entitled  to  the 
same  rewards. 

28th.  The  rewards  shall  be  paid  by  the  receiver-general  of  the 
departments  by  drafts  upon  the  central  administrations,  from  the 
funds  arising  from  the  penalties  named  and  paid  in  by  virtue  of  the 
present  law. 

29th.  The  rewards  granted  to  the  gend'armes  and  national 
guards,  sedentary  or  in  activity,  shall  be  equally  distributed  amongst 
the  soldiers  who  shall  have  aided  in  the  arrest  of  individuals  desig- 
nated #n  the  twenty-sixth  article  aforesaid. 

30rh.  In  default  of  funds  in  the  treasury  of  the  receiver-general 
of  the  department  accruing  from  penalties,  individuals  named  in 
the  second  article  shall  be  bound  to  pay  in  to  the  treasury  of  the 
said  receiver  the  whole  amount  of  the  rewards  accorded,  within 
ten  days  from  the  decree  of  the  receiver-general. 

31st.  In  default  of  the  individuals  called  upon  to  pay,  of  placing' 
in  the  above  mentioned  periods  the  penalties,  indemnities  and  re- 
wards here  abov^e  mentioned,  they  will  be  condemned  by  the  civil 
tribunal  of  the  department  by  process  from  the  commission  of  the 
executive  directory  to  the  same  tribunal.  The  central  administra« 
tions  will,  therefore,  be  bound  to  address  to  the  same  commissioner 


NOTES.  21 

a  copy  of  the  decree  bearing  the  fixed  rates  of  the  said  penalties, 
indeinniiies  or  rewards,  with  a  statement  of  the  property  of  indivi- 
duals called  upon  for  payment,  to  put  under  sequestration  the  goods 
of  these  mdividuals,  until  the  condemnations  are  accomplished,  un- 
der pain  of  one  thousand  franks  penalty  against  each  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  said  administration. 

32d.  The  commissioner  of  the  executive  directory  near  the  tri- 
bunal shall  be  bound,  under  pain  of  one  thousand  franks  penalty,  to 
furnish  his  suit  to  the  civil  tribunal  within  three  days  from  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  decree  of  the  central  administration  ;  and  within  three 
days  following  the  tribunal  shall  be  equally  bound,  under  pain  of 
one  thousand  franks  penalty  ag^ainst  each  of  its  members,  to  pro- 
nounce upon  the  simple  view  of  the  said  decree. 

33d.  The  penalties  aforesaid  shall  have  the  same  destinatioe  as 
that  mentioned  in  the  twenty-fifth  article  aforesaid. 

34th.  If  within  three  days  after  the  notification  of  the  judgment 
given  by  the  civil  tribunal,  the  individual  or  individuals  condemn- 
ed do  not  pay  into  the  treasury  of  the  receiver-general  the  amount 
of  the  said  penalties,  indemnities  or  rewards,  and  expenses  relating 
thereto,  they  will  be  compelled  by  distress  and  the  sale  of  their 
goods,  and  by  means  of  bonds  in  the  forms  prescribed. 

35th.  The  judgments  given  by  the  civil  tribunals  shall  be  exe- 
cuted, notwithstanding  an  appeal. 

36th.  The  central  administrations,  on  the  advice  of  the  munici- 
pal administrations,  shall  prepare  in  the  month  of  the  publication  of 
the  law  which  shall  designate  the  communes,  cantons  or  depart- 
ments, where  the  present  law  shall  be  applicable,  a  list  of  all  the 
individuals  notorious  as  forming  a  part  of  the  bands  of  assassins. 

37th.  The  individuals  forming  a  part  of  the  said  assemblages  or 
bands  of  assassins  known,  and  who  prove  to  be  of  the  class  of  arti- 
sans, workmen  or  cultivators,  shall  be  admitted  within  fifteen  days 
from  the  publication  of  the  law  indicating  the  departments,  cantons 
or  communes  in  which  the  present  law  shall  be  executed,  tc  return 
freely  to  their  homes  without  molestation,  on  condition  that  the  said 
individuals  present  themselves  within  the  said  period  to  the  central 
administration,  and  there  deposite  a  good  single  barrelled  musket, 
or  a  good  double  barrelled  one.  The  central  administrations  are 
authorized  to  erase  definitively  those  individuals  who  shall  deposite 
arms  within  the  said  period,  from  the  list  prepared  in  exceution  of 
the  preceding  article. 

38th.  The  chiefs  already  pardoned  shall  not  enjoy  the  faculty 
granted  bv  *he  preceding  article,  whatever  may  have  been  their 
rank;  nor  the  heretofore  privileged,  though  without  rank,  pardon- 
ed or  not ;  nor  the  emigrants,  nor  the  transported  priests  returned, 
or  subject  to  transportation",  the  law  concerning  these  last  remain- 
ing in  all  its  force. 

39th.  All  the  individuals  placed  upon  the  list  prepared  in  virtue 
of  the  thirty-sixth  article,  who  will  not  take  the  benefit  of  the  thirty- 
seventh  article  in  the  period  prescribed,  are  personally  assimmila- 
ted  to  the  emigrants,  considered  and  treated  as  such  ;  they  shall, 
therefore,  be  brought  before  a  military  commission,  and  be  con- 
demned to  death,  whether  they  shall  have  been  taken  armed  or  not. 

40th.  The  grandfathers,  grandmothers,  fathers  aud  mothers, 
placed  upon  the  list  prepared  in  execution  of  the  thiity-sixth  arti- 
cle, and  who  shall  not  profit  by  the  advantages  of  the  thirty-seventh 


22  NOTES. 

article  aforesaid,  are  personally  assimilated  to  the  ancestors  of  emi- 
grants, and  submit  to  the  same  indemniiy  in  the  forms  and  in  the 
periods  prescribed  for  the  latter  without  taking  a  valuation  of  the 
minimu»m  of  property. 

41st.  Individuals  who  shall  be  convicted  of  having  knowingly 
given  asylum  to  assassins,  shall  be  subjected  to  the  civil  aud  per- 
sonal security  mentioned  in  the  second  article. 

42d.  The  lists  prepared  in  execution  of  the  articles  seven  and 
thirty-six,  shall  be  printed  and  published  in  all  the  communes  of 
the  respective  depaitments  within  the  four  decades  following  the 
publica'iion  of  the  law  indicating  the  communes,  cantons  or  de- 
partments, where  the  present  law  shall  receive  its  application.  The 
said  lists  shall  besides  be  addressed  within  the  said  period  to  the 
minister  of  general  police. 

43d.  By  means  of  the  dispositions  aforesaid,  the  law  of  the  10th 
Vendemaiaire,  year  4,  shall  cease  to  have  Its  application,  only  as 
to  the  responsibility  established  upon  the  communes,  to  note  the 
publication  of  the  law  which  shall  declare  the  present  decree  to  be 
executed  in  a  department,  canton  or  commune.  The  laws  aiming 
at  the  prevention  or  punishment  of  crimes,  will  continue  to  be  ex- 
ecuted in  whatever  is  not  contrary  to  the  present. 

44th.  When  a  department,  canton  or  commune,  is  declared  in  a 
state  of  disturbance,  the  effect  of  this  declaration  ceases  only  by  a 
law. 

45th.  The  present  law  shall  not  receive  its  execution  until  the 
general  peace  ;  it  shall  be  proclaimed  and  published  in  all  the  com- 
munes of  the  republic. 

(16)  The  legislative'body  to  the  French  nation  : 

Frenchmen — It  is  upon  your  dearest  interests — it  is  upon  the  in- 
valuable benefits  of  internal  tranquillity — it  is  upon  the  means  of 
recalling  it  and  establishing  it  among  you,  that  your  representatives 
feel  the  need  of  addressing  you  at  this  time.  Frenchmen — dread- 
ful civil  dissensions  seem  already  to  revive  in  some  departments  of 
the  West  and  of  the  South,  threatening  to  extend  their  ravages  up- 
on other  points  of  the  republic. 

To  arrest  their  progress,  legislators  must  take  severe  but  neces- 
sary measures  against  men  which  a  long  and  unhappy  experience 
has  but  too  greatly  signalized  as  the  plotters  of  our  discords. 

But  the  restraints  of  the  law  must  not  be  left  alone  to  the  voice  of 
reason. 

It  is  to  you  especially  that  we  address  ourselves,  plain  men  whom 
malevolent  persons  too  often  seize  upon  in  order  to  make  you  serve 
as  instruments  to  their  views,  subversive  of  order  as  established  by 
the  constitution  and  the  laws. 

Perfidious  men  ! — they  pretend  to  pity  you  ;  they  would  not  in- 
cense you  ;  they  recount  to  you  without  ceasing  the  evils  of  the  re- 
volution ;  they  do  not  tell  you  that  by  their  opposition  they  were  the 
first  promoters  of  it. 

In  speaking-  of  your  interests,  they  are  only  mindful  of  their  own, 
and  would  seize  again  their  ancient  usurpations. 

What ! — would  it  then  be  for  the  re-establishment  of  tithes,  of  sta- 
tute labor,  of  feudality,  that  they  would  endeavor  to  arm  French- 
men against  Frenchmen  1 

Good  and  honest  inhabitants  of  the  provinces,  how  can  you  re- 
gret such  a  regime,  and  to  recall  it  would  be  madness ! 


Notes.  28 

Citizens  of  all  ranks,  inhabitants  of  cities''and  of  villages,  have 
you  forgotten  what  your  political  regeneration  had  in  it  that  was 
touching  and  sublime  in  the  first  periods  of  the  revolution? 

No ;  such  recollections  can  never  be  effaced,  and  you  will  not 
again  embrace  the  chains  that  you  have  broken  with  indignation  ; 
you  would  not  submit  with  impunity  ;  you  who  at  some  epoch  or 
other  had  served  the  revolution,  royal  vengeances  would  know  well 
how  to  reach  you. 

And  you,  insensible  men,  who  saw  the  revolution  without  enthu- 
siasm; but  without  hatred,  do  you  think  that-  you  would  not  be  re- 
proached for  your  simple  indifference  by  your  insolent  conquerors  1 

Your  interest  towards  all  is  to  remove  from  the  soil  of  France 
this  torrent  of  misfortunes  which  would  overwhelm  it,  if  the  crimi- 
nal hopes  of  some  could  be  realized. 

Let,  therefore,  civil  dissensions  cease,  and  leave  our  only  cares 
to  repel  the  external  enemy. 

Citizens,  in  the  midst  of  a  dreadful  war  which  perhaps  ought  not 
so  long  to  have  existed,  and  at  the  end  of  a  disastrous  administra- 
tion, you  suffer,  no  doubt;  your  representatives  sigh  over  it;  they 
will  labor  without  intermission  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  evils 
which  accompanied  several  epochs  of  ihe  revolution. 

They  will  know  how  to  receive  in  concert  with  the  regenerated 
executive  directory,  when  it  shall  be  presented,  a  peace  worthy  of 
the  French  nation  and  its  allies. 

But  this  peace — the  object  of  our  vows  and  yours — this  peace, 
which  ought  to  draw  again  upon  the  territory  of  France  abundance 
and  prosperity  do  not  compromise  it  or  remove  it  by  civil  discords, 
and  if  there  remain  sacrifices  to  make,  let  theDO^  be  for  your  coun- 
try, and  not  to  destroy  one  another. 

What !  shall  the  blood  of  Frenchmen  flow  for  that  of  any  other 
cause  but  that  of  liberty] 

And  are  there  men  mad  enough  to  hope  for  happiness  in  the  end 
from  a  civil  warl 

Carcasses  heaped  up,  fields  devastated,  houses  burnt,  and  would 
there  not  then  be  other  objects  of  terror'? 

^  Far  be  from  us  the  thought  that  such  a  course  of  moral  degrada- 
tion should  be  admitted  in  the  general  system. 

However  bands  of  royal  assassins  show  themselves  in  different 
departments  and  attack  republicans;  these  germs  of  a  new  civil  war 
cannot  come  to  the  knowledge  of  your  representatives  without  their 
seeking,  at  the  same  time,  the  means  of  putting  them  down,  by  of- 
fering to  republicans  a  guarantee  against  their  enemies — this  is 
what  they  are  about  to  do.  Patriots,  preserve  or  resume  an  ener- 
getic and  firm  attitude,  the  legislative  body  and  the  directory  have 
determined  to  make  the  republic  triumphant. 

And  you  who  were  the  blind  instruments  for  the  assassination  of 
republicans — you  artisans  and  husbandmen  whom  they  reckon 
amongst  the  bands  of  assassins,  return  to  your  workshops  and  your 
ploughs ;  lay  down  the  arms  you  wish  to  turn  against  your  country ; 
your  peaceful  retreats  call  you  home ;  your  productive  fields  should 
not  be  converted  into  fields  of  blood.  You,  in  fine,  ex-nobles,  rela- 
tions of  emigrants,  and  ancestors  of  rebels— you  who  had  so  great 
an  influence  over  the  misfortunes  of  your  country — you  who  could 
ninder  crime,  and  who  counsel  it  so  often,  consider  that  5'^ou  are  to- 
day responsible  for  the  tranquillity  of  the  interior.    Strive  then  to 


24  NOTES. 

maintain  it;  for  it  is  at  this  price  alone  that  you  will  be  one  day  ad- 
mitted to  all  the  rights  with  the  other  children  of  the  great  family. 
Let  the  departments  infested  with  Choreanism  return  to  order,  if 
they  wish  to  partake  of  the  common  rights ;  let  the  departments 
which  are  strangers  to  civ^il  troubles,  continue  to  merit  an  honora- 
ble exception ;  let,  in  a  word,  internal  peace  be  established  on  a  so- 
lid basis,  and  soon  without,  we  shall  resume  the  attitude  of  victory. 
(17)  Speech  delivered  by  the  citizen  Sieyes,  president  of  the  ex- 
ecutive directory,  at  the  celebration  of  the  10th  of  August: 

I  salute  you  in  the  name  of  all  Frenchmen,  day  of  justice  and  of 
glory,  which  the  destinies  of  France  had  at  length  fixed  to  settle  the 
national  independence  upon  the  downfall  of  the  throne.  On  the 
tenth  of  August  royalty  was  overthrown  in  France — it  shall  never 
rise  again.  ,.  Citizens,  such  is  the  oath  which  you  have  engraven 
upon  the  walls  ©f  this  palace,  at  the  moment  even  when  you  drove 
from  it  the  last  of  our  tyrants.  Thus  disappeared  this  long  succes- 
sion of  despots,  whose  yoke  had  become  unsupportable,  who  called 
themselves  the  delegates  of  heaven,  in  order  to  oppress  with  more 
security  the  earth,  which  in  France  they  beheld  as  their  patrimony 
—the  French  people  as  their  subjects— the  laws  but  as  the  expres- 
sion of  their  good  pleasure.  The  hereditary  influence  had  so  far 
familiarized  us  with  this  ridiculous  language,  that  perhaps  even  at 
this  time  it  does  not  sufficiently  astonish  our  ears. 

In  this  last  combat  there  remained  for  the  defenders  of  royalty  the 
boldness  and  cowardice  of  a  corrupt  court:  the  perfidy,  the  inso- 
lence, and  the  deceitful  aids  of  slavery  ;  it  had  for  adversaries,  cou- 
rage, a  firm  will,  the  enthusiasm  of  new  liberty,  and  the  generous 
virtues  which  it  inspires.  The  struggle  could  not  be  long,  the  vic- 
tory could  not  be  doubtful. 

But  with  royalty  could  not  be  annihilated  in  a  day  all  the  inte- 
rests with  which  it  is  associated,  all  the  institutions  which  were  too 
much  identified  with  it.  In  republican  France,  royalty  preserves 
both  friends  and  avengers.  The  one  does  not  disguise  even  its 
efibrts  to  revive  it.  Founding  their  hope  upon  I  know  not  what 
fraternity  of  thrones,  and  upon  the  more  real  alliances  between  the 
throne  and  the  altar,  they  arm  around  us  a  part  of  Europe,  they  re- 
light in  the  midst  of  us  the  torches  of  fanaticism. 

The  other  more  perfidious  declaimers  burning  against  royally; 
but  the  secret  and  not  less  implacable  enemies  of  those,  who,  hav- 
ing destroyed  it,  bend  to  every  form  of  language,  unite  their  rage, 
surpass  in  excesses,  in  the  double  hope  of  avenging  the  throne  upon 
its  real  destroyers,  to  make  it  regretted  by  those  even  who  had  most 
applauded  its  overthrow. 

Thus  the  republic  has  been  constantly  a  mark  for  direct  or  indi- 
rect aggressions,  attacks  equally  formidable.  Citizens,  it  is  not  de- 
viating from  the  spirit  of  this  fete  to  tell  you  of  the  means  employ- 
ed by  your  representatives  and  your  magistrates,  in  order  that 
they  might  triumph  over  so  many  obstacles,  and  associate  your  pa- 
triotism with  their  efforts;  it  is  still  to  strike  at  royalty — it  is  to 
continue,  in  some  manner,  to  complete  the  victory  of  the  10th  of 
August. 

To  the  open  enterprises  of  royalty,  the  republic  opposes,  without 
remission,  the  deployment  of  ail  the  national  forces — opposes  laws 
without  compassion  to  the  deserter  of  our  country — terrible  mea- 
sures to  all  the  communes  agitated  with  royalism — indefatigable 


NOTES.  25 

surveillance  upon  all  intrigues,  upon  the  manceuvres  of  those  who 
dare  lo  speak  of  its  return.  Whoever  at  this  moment  would  deny 
either  these  means,  or  the  republican  will  of  those  who  direct  them, 
can  only  be  either  a  madman  or  a  man  not  to  be  trusted. 

To  indirect  aggressions  we  might  reply  by  repressive  measures, 
the  constitution  and  the  laws  give  the  right.  But,  because  your  ma- 
gistrates are  stout  republicans,  because  ihey  know  that  in  this  class 
of  aggressors  Frenchmen  are  mingled  who  are  carried  away  by 
their  love  for  the  republic — and  it  would  be  with  inconsolable  regret 
that  they  should  find  themselves  compelled  lo  be  severe  towards 
those  who  have  been  able  to  serve  the  cause  of  liberty — it  is  rather 
by  earnest  and  fraternal  advice  that  they  would  reach  them,  for  they 
cannot  renounce  the  hope  of  bringing  back  to  the  true  interests  of 
the  republic  men  whose  actions  may  have  appeared  doubtful,  but 
whose  intentions  have  remained  pure.  It  is  then  to  these  that  we 
address  ourselves  to  make  known  to  them  this  small  number  of  false 
patriots  who  agitate  and  torment  them — who  infuse  into  the  mind 
absurd  ideas,  and  extravagant  or  guilty  hopes.  The  presen  tcir- 
cumstances  create  a  duty.     I  go  to  fulfil  it. 

Citizens,  whatever  these  men  may  be  whom  I  persist  in  consider- 
ing a  small  number,  foreigners  or  natives,  kept  in  pay  by  the  enemy, 
or  obeying  only  their  passions,  desiring  the  speedy  return  of  royalty, 
or  preferring  the  return  of  that  terror  so  justly  abhorred  by  French- 
men, I  will  exclaim  :  Be  on  your  guard  as  republicans,  in  looking  up 
to  those  who  see  in  the  overturning  of  the  throne,  not  the  means  of  es- 
tablishing a  new  government  desired  by  the  nation, but  the  right  atall 
times  to  overturn  every  thing  which  would  obstruct  their  individual 
ambition.  Those  who  think  that  to  strengthen  is  cowardice,  to  destory 
a  glory;  who,  unruly  enemies  of  every  thing  which  constitutes 
order,  or  even  the  appearance  of  order,  wish  to  govern  by  crises,  and 
not  by  laws,  who  would  destroy  with  their  own  hands  the  govern- 
ment which  they  themselves  had  formed,  because  a  government, 
even  of  their  own  making,  could  not  always  accomplish  at  will 
the  projects  of  their  avidity — all  the  ravings  of  their  madness. 

No,  they  are  not  republicans  who  have  not  yet  been  able  to  revoke, 
to  pardon  friends  of  liberty  the  most  ancient  and  the  most  incorrupt- 
ible, who  insult  them  always  by  reason  even  of  the  confidence 
with  whi'h  the  nation  honors  them,  or  from  the  magnitude  of  the 
services  which  they  have  rendered.  Conquerors  of  the  10th  of 
August,  vou  to  whom  is  addressed  the  homage  of  this  day,  you 
have  not  yourselves  been  able  to  escape  these  calumniators,  who 
would  do  so  with  every  name,  and  who  dim  the  lustre  of  every 
glory  ! 

They  are  not  republicans  whose  servile  soul  cannot  conceive 
that  the  founders  ot  liberty  and  of  the  republic  were  republi^^ans  ; 
who  repeating  the  ravaging  injuries  of  this  same  court,  which  the 
10th  of  August  has  overthrown,  and  which  they  revenge  since 
they  imitate  it.  They  yet  seek  at  the  present  time  to  impute  to 
them,  as  the  object  of  their  secret  vows,  I  know  not  what  phantom 
of  a  king,  paraded  by  turns  before  all  those  whom  they  wish  to 
destroy:  senseless  detractors,  or  hypocrites,  who,  shutting  their 
eyes  against  all  evidence,  persist  in  being  ignorant  that  men, 
especially  those  most  frequently  attacked  by  this  absurd  accusa- 
tion, have  a  thousand  times,  and  from  the  origin  of  the  revolution, 
manifested  their  ardent  desire  that  this  man,  whom  I  do  not  wish 


26  NOTES. 

to  name,  might  have  remained,  he  and  his  own  for  ever  in  the 
enemy's  ranks,  instead  of  carrying  disquiet,  distrust,  and  danger 
into  our  own. 

No,  they  are  not  republicans  those  who,  through  their  demo- 
cratical  language,  allow  the  shameful  predilection  which  they 
preserve  for  royal  superstitions  to  be  easily  seen  through,  and 
seem  every  moment  to  tell  you,  that  since  you  have  attacked  a 
king,  they  can  with  much  greater  reason  attack  the  magistrates  of 
the  people. 

No,  they  are  not  republicans,  those  who  only  know  how  to  gather, 
to  stir  up,  to  excite  discontents  against  established  order,  those 
who  in  other  times  think,  that  in  order  to  govern,  you  must  punish 
with  death  whoever  should  dare  not  to  be  content;  those  to  whom 
peace  would  be  a  misfortune,  who  dread  victory,  who  calculate 
upon  our  reverses  for  the  increase  of  their  influence;  those  who 
hope  for  internal  dissensions,  are  only  happy  from  the  stirring  up 
of  hatred ;  they  denounce  with  boldness  before  the  multitude,  anil 
tremble  when  they  have  to  sign  a  denunciation ;  who  always 
thirsting  for  vengeance,  are  angry  at  the  salutary  slowness  which 
the  law  commands,  both  to  save  the  innocent  and  to  reach  with 
ceriainty  the  guilty — who  by  the  madness  of  their  provocations 
bring  fear  upon  the  peaceful  citizen,  dry  up  the  sources  of  public 
wealth,  blast  credit,  annihilate  commerce,  paralyze  all  exertion, 
who  speak  without  ceasing  of  misfortunes,  and  augment  the  num- 
ber of  the  unfortunate,  call  themselves  the  friends  of  the  people, 
and  only  know  how  to  exasperate  instead  of  serving  them;  are 
incensed  against  the  exterior  enemy,  but  are  thoroughly  decided 
not  to  contend  with  him. 

Is  it  then  because  they  repeat  with  more  noise,  the  real  move- 
ments of  our  common  indignation  against  dilapidators  and  traitors, 
that  they  hope  to  impose  upon  you  1  But  people  in  their  daily  ex- 
perience, have  they  not  learned  that  it  is  not  always  the  men  who 
speak  the  loudest  that  are  the  most  free  from  reproach  ? — that 
many  denounce,  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  denounced.  And 
whom  will  they  persuade  that  those  who  govern  do  not  experience 
a  civic  grief  much  more  sincere,  much  more  profound,  than  theirs 
at  the  painful  spectacle  of  evils  done  to  our  country,  and  at  the 
moment,  especially,  when  they  are  called  upon  to  seek  a  remedy  1 

Have  they  given  more  security  for  their  morality  and  their 
civism  1  Do  they  enjoy  a  reputation  more  pure  1  Are  they  more 
austere  in  their  manners,  more  of  citizens  1  And  if  their  indigna- 
tion be  real,  instead  of  these  clamors  which  are  only  addressed  to 
the  passions,  and  who  would  sooner  protect  the  guilty,  because  they 
surround  them  with  those  who  are  not  so  ;  why  do  we  not  see 
them  aid  usefully  the  action  of  the  law  in  multiplying  searches,  in 
gathering  proofs — in  fact,  in  enlightening  the  magistrates'?  But 
why  should  I  delay  to  mention  it,  their  aim  is  certainly  not  justice : 
it  is  to  infatua'e  the  public  with  suspicion ;  it  is  to  carry  confusion 
and  discouragement  into  every  mind ;  it  is  to  drive  Frenchmen  to 
despair  ;  it  is  to  plunge  every  thing  into  confusion  ;  it  is,  in  a  word, 
to  gov^ern  at  any  price  whatever.  Frenchmen,  you  know  how  to 
govern  !  The  executive  directory  knows  all  the  enemies  who  con- 
spire against  th::  republic.  In  the  midst  of  these  agitations  it  has 
•>ust  signalized  who  are  few  in  number,  but  appear  to  multiply  by 
report  j  it  does  not  lose  sight  of  other  royalists  of  incurable  mad- 


NOTES.  27 

ftess  who  aspire  to  a  master,  who  would  call  them  back  from  all 
their  vow-,  from  all  their  actions,  and  who  reckon  so  justly  as 
their  auxiliaries  whoever  menaces  at  the  present  time  the  consti- 
tution and  government.  It  declares  to  you  that  it  will  be  equally 
inflexible  against  all ;  that  superior  to  danger,  calm  in  the  midst  of 
the  storm,  it  will  combat  them  all  without  weakness  and  without 
intermission;  not  in  balancing  them  one  against  another — this  im- 
politic and  cruel  game  would  be  unworthy  of  the  republic — but  in 
repressing  them  all  equally  by  the  aid  of  energetic  measures, 
which  the  constitution  of  the  year  3  secures,  and  the  immense 
majority  of  citizens  resolved  to  defend  it :  to  obey  only  the  laws 
and  to  rally  round  at  all  times  the  tutelary  auihoriiies. 

Lor.g  live  the  Republic ! 
■  (18)  Message  of  the  executive  directroy  to  the  council  of  an- 
cients of  the  17th  Thermidor. 
Citizen  Representatives — 

The  executive  directory  has  received  your  message  of  the  13th 
of  this  month,  concerning  societies  occupied  with  political  ques- 
tions, and  it  hastens  to  send  it  to  the  minister  of  police  with  orders 
to  make  a  prompt  report  upon  the  subject.  You  will  find  here  ad- 
ded the  report  which  contains  the  information  )'ou  have  de- 
manded. 

The  directory,  deeply  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  main- 
taining every  thing  in  constitutional  order,  and  of  repressing  those 
who  would  disturb  it,  will  employ  those  measures  which  circum- 
stances require :  you  may  in  this  respect  rely  upon  its  courage  and 
its  devotion,  as  it  likewise  places  its  confidence  in  its  union  with 
the  legislative  ^jody,  and  in  the  laws  and  means  which  it  will 
furnish  to  secure  individual  safety,  and  public  tranquillity  .  .  .  Re- 
port of  the  ministers  of  police  to  the  executive  directory — 

Citizen  Directors — You  have  directed  me  to  make  to  you  a  re- 
port relative  to  political  societies;  to  relate  to  you  the  course  they 
have  pursued  since  their  establishment,  and  neither  to  conceal 
from  you  their  services  nor  their  errors.  I  owe  you  the  truth  as  a 
minister.  I  will  speak  it  as  a  minister  and  a  citizen.  There  never 
was  a  more  important  and  more  delicate  institution  ever  submitted 
to  the  consideration  of  legislators — it  interests  essentially  (I  dare 
to  say  it)  both  the  republic  and  liberty. 

After  the  30th  Praireal  the  citizens,  restored  to  the  full  exercise 
of  their  rights,  did  not  delay  to  re-unite  themselves  in  political 
societies.  These  re-unions  legitimate,  for  rights  were  favored  in 
the  hope  that  they  would  re-animate  public  spirit,  almost  extin- 
guished from  a  variety  of  causes  which  are  known  to  you,  and  that 
they  would  direct  towards  the  salvation  of  their  country  all  the 
movements  of  thought,  and  all  the  passions  of  the  soul.  The  end 
was  glorious,  the  route  easy  ;  the  first  steps  were  circumspect,  and 
courage  and  energy  did  not  disdain  at  first  the  counsels  and  lan- 
guage of  an  enlightened  prudence.  Citizens  gathered  in  crowds, 
and  this  happy  concourse  proved  to  the  enemies  of  liberty,  that 
notwithstanding  so  many  grevous  losses,  after  such  long  persecu- 
tions, and  such  bitter  disgusts,  the  ranks  of  republicans  were  not 
thinned,  nor  their  generous  ardor  exhausted — a  terrible  experience 
to  our  enemies,  a  sure  token  of  their  defeats.  From  these  political 
re-unions  the  most  happy  results  were  expected  for  our  country. 
It  was  hoped  that  their  burning  and  prolific  zeal,  seconding  the 


28  NOTES. 

patriotism  and  the  ardor  of  the  authorities  would  powerfully  con- 
cur in  raising  public  spirit  to  drive  the  conscripts  to  the  frontiers, 
and  to  strengthen  in  their  hearts  the  passion  for  victory.  It  grieves 
me  to  say  it,  the  breath  of  the  stranger  has  dissipated  all  these 
hopes.  Hatreds,  weakened  by  the  benefit  of  time,  have  been  sud- 
denly revived  with  fresh  activity — recollections  hardly  effaced,  re- 
called with  the  most  dreadful  preparation — past  proscriptions  re- 
produced to  the  imagination  by  the  announcement  of  new  proscrip- 
tions— accusations  become  ail  at  once  general  and  irregular — the 
guilty  are  skilfully  confounded  with  the  crowd.  In  fine,  the  con- 
stitution, in  virtue,  of  which  they  were  united,  has  been  evaded 
and  openly  violated  at  several  points. 

In  eflfect  the  constitution  forbids  presidents  and  secretaries.  They 
have  named  a  regulator  and  commentators.  The  constitution  says 
textually,  no  particular  political  society  can  hold  public  sittings  com- 
posed of  an  assembly  and  members  of  the  society  distinguished  from 
each  other  !  There  has  been  constantly  assemblies  and  members  of 
societies.  The  constitution  interdicts  collective  petitions,  and  every 
thing  which  bears  the  character  of  legislation  or  of  executive  authori- 
ty. They  have  named  a  commission  of  public  instruction.  The  parti- 
cular object  of  this  commission  is  the  publication  every  decade  of  a 
report  on  the  situation  of  the  republic.  Other  commissions  have  also 
been  named.  These  united  commissions  have  made  a  report  to  the 
society  upon  a  notification  to  the  council  of  ancients,  relative  to  the 
evacuation  of  the  hall  called  the  Manege  at  the  end  of  this  report — 
they  have  decreed  to  obey  only  by  an  order  from  the  council  taken 
during  sittings. 

The  commission  of  public  instruction  has  distributed  and  placard- 
ed another  report,  in  which  it  seeks  to  exasperate  the  people,  and 
to  inspire  them  with  distrust  of  the  intentions  of  magistrates,  whom 
republicans  themselves  have  chosen  ;  they  speak  of  continuators  of 
Merlin,  of  Familiars,  of  the  Protectorate,  of  Restorers  of  the  throne 
of  '91,  of  a  pentarchial  royalty  ;  they  aflirm  that  the  people  can  on- 
ly be  regenerated  and  constituted  but  by  popular  heads.  The  soci- 
ety, which  ought  only  to  be  occupied  with  political  questions,  and 
with  means  proper  to  revive  public  spirit,  is  carried  away  without 
ceasing,  beyond  its  design  by  interests,  affections,  or  personal  ha- 
treds, to  which  a  more  sincere  love  of  their  country  would,  no 
doubt,  have  imposed  a  salutary  silence  ;  it  has  hardly  ever  attach- 
ed itself  but  to  persons  and  things  which  would  give  to  the  most 
direful  passions  a  new  degree  of  intensity. 

These  transgressions,  these  irregulariiies,  these  violences,  are 
not  only  seen,  but  we  are  struck  with  them.  These  first  movements, 
it  is  tnie,  may  be  considered  as  the  consequences  of  that  long  pres- 
sure which  weighed  upon  the  republic  before  the  30th  Praireal. — 
Such  are  the  effects  of  oppression,  it  leaves  in  the  souls  of  men  the 
most  just,  the  seeds  of  disquietude  and  the  relics  of  indignation. — 
Nevertheless,  every  indulgence  which  ought  to  be  granted  to  these 
first  digressions  is  granted,  but  prudence  counsels  severity  for  the 
future. 

The  political  re-unions,  as  they  exist  at  the  present  day,  make  the 
Joy  and  the  hope  of  thej  stranger ;  it  has  thrown  already  in  their 
bosom  its  most  perfidious  emissaries. 

It  is  such  who,  in  exaggerating  the  most  important  truths,  rend- 
er them  doubtful ;  it  is  such  who  have  established  a  tyranny  of 


NOTES.  2\> 

opinions  in  the  midst  even  of  political  re-unions ;  it  is  such  who 
pervert  the  influence  of  them,  and  who  turn  against  liberty  the  se- 
curities of  liberty ;  it  is  such  who  weaken  the  republican  party,  and 
who  place  impediments  upon  the  march  of  the  authorities  in  sur- 
rounding the  chariot  of  the  constitution  with  animosities  and  ven- 
geances. 

(  It  must  not,  however,  be  doubted,  that  if.  the  political  re-unions 
contain  so  many  and  such  dangerous  elements  of  dissolution  and 
discord,  is  it  not  because  they  have  issued  from  constitutional  forms 
and  limits. 

The  constitution  has  proclaimed  the  principle,  and  consecrated 
the  existence  of  political  societies,  but  legislative  measures  are 
wanting,  and  it  is  only  by  such  that  we  can  hope  to  reap,  with  the 
advantages  promised,  still  greater  benefits.  The  necessity  of  these 
measures  they  themselves  feel.  Thrown  upon  an  immense  soil,  al- 
most without  limits,  they  have  been  irresistably  exposed  to  every 
species  of  error,  seduction  and  snare.  Contract  the  circle,  trace 
the  limits,  regulate  the  movements  which  are  proper  to  them  ;  this 
is  to  second  their  vows.  Then  belter  directed,  sustained  by  more 
worthy  motives  and  more  powerful  interests,  the  enthusiasm  which 
they  will  know  how  to  inspire  and  to  revive,  will  turn  entirely  to 
the  advantage  of  the  republic. 

The  minister  of  police  has  not  distinguished  the  political  re-unions 
from  one  another,  because  they  have  almost  all  followed  the  same 
errors,  and  that  those  which  have  been  successively  established,  ap- 
pear gradually  to  be  formed  under  the  influence  of  those  which  had 
been  first  formed. 

I  cannot,  therefore,  citizen  directors,  too  much  dwell  upon  the 
necessity  o^  taking  prompt  legislative  measures  which  may  at  once 
protect  the  interior  discussions  of  political  re-unions,  and  restrain 
them  without,  wiih  all  the  power  of  the  republic. 

Citizen  directors,  in  the  account  which  I  am  about  to  render  you, 
I  have  not  desired  to  weaken  the  truth ;  no  consideration  shall  hin- 
der me  from  fulfilling  my  duties.  All  who  have  in  their  hearts  the 
true  love  of  country  will  respect  my  courage;  I  only  know  how  to 
attach  a  value  to  the  consciences  of  free  men. 

Paris,  the  15th  Thermidor,  year  7.  The  Minister  of  General 
Police 

(Signed,)  FOUCHE. 

(19)  Citizen  Representatives — 

The  directory  is  occupied  without  intermission  in  remedying  the 
evils  of  our  country  ;  it  redoubles  its  zeal  and  energy  in  proportion 
as  the  dangers  it  discovers  command  new  efibrts  for  its  devotion, 
and  new  precautions  for  its  prudence. 

Already  it  has  traced  to  you  the  picture  of  public  dangers — to 
dissemble  them  before  you  would  be  a  crime.  Yes,  citizen  repre- 
sentatives, royalism,  emboldened,  conspires  with  audacity;  its 
agents  invest  themselves  in  every  form,  put  on  every  disguise,  bor- 
row every  form  of  language;  every  where  we  find  them  marching 
to  the  same  end  by  different  routes;  they  labor  for  the  destruction 
of  the  republic  by  the  effbrts  of  an  open  hatred,  as  welJ  by  the  per- 
fidy of  a  false  zeal  by  the  attacks  of  an  open  war,  as  by  the  hypoc- 
risy of  an  excess  of  patriotism. 

The  stranger  keeps  up  war  upon^our  frontiers,  and  discord  in 

S 


30  NOTES. 

our  homes;  he  has  in  our  cities  his  spies  and  his  traitors,  as  also 
his  satellites  and  his  generals  in  the  armies  of  the  enemy. 

The  cabinets  of  the  coalition  desire  to  facilitate  conquest  without, 
by  preparing  destruction  within ;  they  desire  to  aggravate  the  em- 
barrassments of  exterior  war,  by  the  dangers  of  civil  war;  they 
wish  to  add  to  the  powder  of  their  solemn  alliance  the  plots  of  their 
underhand  conspirators.  Unhappy  successes  have  followed  the  ef- 
forts of  our  enemies.  In  the  West  the  monarchy  has  re-armed  its 
ancient  bands  of  assassins;  in  the  I^orth,  fanaticism  kindles  again 
her  bloody  torch  ;  in  the  South,  all  the  re-actions  prepare  for  fresh 
furies,  an*l  during  this  time  our  phalanxes,  so  long  invincible,  are 
exasperated  at  being  forced  to  cede  to  the  superiority  of  number. 

The  directory  employs  every  means  in  its  power  in  order  to  re- 
call victory  under  the  banners  of  the  republic;  to  bring  back  peace 
to  the  departments;  to  re-establish  order  in  the  finances,  and  to  re- 
vive patriotism  in  all  hearts. 

It  hoped  to  have  been  seconded  in  its  efforts  by  the  revival  of 
public  spirit ;  it  flattered  itself  that  the  re-unions  of  citizens  which 
the  constitution  authorizes  by  keeping  within  the  line  which  has 
been  marked  out  to  them,  would  become  the  centre  of  civism,  and 
of  knowledge,  guarantees  of  union  and  tranquillity.  It  has  seen 
with  grief,  that  in  a  commune  which  contains  so  great  a  number 
of  good  citizens,  a  society  is'  formed' in  the  Rue  du  Bacq,  which  is 
become  the  centre  of  all  the  passions.!  They  there  exercise  their 
influence  to  revive  hatreds,  and  to  awaken  dangerous  reminiscences. 
In  vain  have  you  encouraged  good,  citizens  by  the  solemn  procla- 
mation of  your  attachment  to  the  constitution  of  the ^year  3.  Clam- 
ors have  drowned  the  accents  of  your  consoling  voices,  renewed 
alarms,  your  intentions  outraged,  and  your  labors  insulted  by  me- 
nancing  the  people,  with  the  necessity  of  saving  themselves. 

These  forms,  these  speeches,  these  cries,  have  recalled  excesses 
and  misfortunes,  which  the  whole  republic  is  resolved  to  prevent 
the  recurrence.  Then  fear  silenced  energy,  shook  fidelity,  hope 
vanished,  and  a  general  disquietude  seized  upon  all  minds. 

Republicans  believe  themselves  menanced  at  the  same  time  by 
the  armies  of  kings,  by  the  horrors  of  the  monarchy,  and  by  the 
furies  of  a  new.  overthrow. 

The  directory  must  say  to  you,  citizen  representatives,  that  the 
legislative  body,  the  executive  power  of  a  great  republic,  ought  to 
be  upheld  by  public  opinion,  encouraged  by  devotedness,  and  re- 
warded by  the  esteem  of  patriots;  they  cannot  deceive  themselves, 
as  to  the  ascendency  always  increasing  in  a  state  of  anu-pilimited  re- 
union of  individuals.  This  ascendency  becomes  dangerous  to  social 
order,  when  this  mass  of  men,  ignorant  for  the  most  part, of  their 
strength,  and  of  th^iuse,, to  which  it  is  destined,  receive  without 
knowing  it  their  ideas,,  their:  projects,  and  even  a  name  from  the 
hands  of  our  enemies.  The  French  nation  must  not  fear  the  re- 
turn of  a  monstrous  power  which  it  has  seen  either  as  a  rash  rival, 
or  as  an  audacious  regulator  of  the  legitimate  and  constitutional 
powers,  .-.i)  ..  .,-.  ,  , 

:It  mustnot  be,  that  in  the  bosom  of  the  republic,  the  colossus  of  a 
re-union  may  be  raised  by  which  our  enemies  design  to  mislead, 
and  where  is  every  day  developed  the  perfidious  .conduct  of  their 
-emissaries.  •'  .-.,,,_ 

The  directory,  in  order  to  remedy  these  evils  and  prevent  these 


NOTES.  31 

dangers,  has  thought  it  right  to  repress  the  continuance  of  the  so- 
ciety of  the  Rue  du  Bacq  in  its  infringing  conduct  upon  the  consti- 
tution; it  has  ordered  the  closing  of  it. 

Resolved  to  follow  with  firmness  the  line  of  its  duties,  the  direc- 
tory will  protect  all  reunions  which  shall  respect  the  law,  which 
the  French  people  have  sworn  to  maintain  ;  it  will  expose  the  ef- 
forts of  all  those  who  would  disturb  them  in  the  exercise  of  their 
rights,  and  it  will  arrest  unceasingly  in  their  secret  plans  all  those 
who  would  menace  liberty,  of  which  the  rigorous  observance  of 
this  compact  is  the  first  guarantee.  The  law  which  you  will  pre- 
pare, citizen  representatives,  the  executive  directory  demands  of 
you  with  solicitude.  Hasten  the  emission  of  it  as  much  as  your 
wisdom,  and  the  importance,  and  the  mature  reflection  of  it  will 
permit.  It  .will  recall  citizens  to  their  duties  in  consecrating  anew 
their  rights;  it  will  prevent  abuses  by  making  their  limits.  ; 

These  reunions  which  occupy  themselves  with  political  ques- 
tions, well  fulfil  the  designof  iheir  institution;  then  they  will  be 
the  hope  of  republicans,  instead  of  becoming  an  object  of  disquie- 
tude. 

The  directory  will  be  no  longer  compelled  to  divide  its  attention 
between  the  evils  with  which  royalism  and  assassination  menace 
us,  and  the  evils,  the  not  less  terrible  forerunners  of  the  success  of 
tyranny  which  would  follow  the  abasement  or  the  destruction  of 
the  constitutional  authorities. 

Then  societies  of  republicans,  instead  of  weakening  the  action 
of  the  laws  by  the  example  of  their  violation,  would  add-to  the  so- 
cial security;  they  would  inflame  the  courage  of  the  conscripts, 
they  wonld  hasten  the  collection  of  all  the  taxes  which  would  be 
the  price  of  peace  within,  the  pledge  of  victory  without,  and  would 
no  more  become  the  prey  of  dilapidators.  Then  the  societies  would 
rekindle  patriotism,  silence  all  alarms  ;  the  constitution  would  be 
spoken  of  with  respect,  the  law  wrthi  rmbmission,  legislators  and 
magistrates  with  decorum,  armies  v/ith  gratitude  and  pride,  liberty 
with  enthusiasm,  our  country  with  love,  and,  the  republic  W:Ould  be 
once  more  saved  and  triumphant. 

(20)  It  is  known  that  a  Jourdan  acquired  in  the  massacre  of  the 
South,  a  celebrity  as  dreadful,  as  was  brilliant  and  pure  that  of  the 
conqueror  of  Fleurus.  The  terrible  Jourdan,  chief  of  the  assassins 
of  the  South,  was  surnamed  Coup  tetes. 

(21)  Executive  directory — message  to  the  council  of  five  hun- 
dred of  the  17ih  Fructidor,  year  7. 

Citizen  Represeiitativcs — 

The  council  of  the  ancients  has  addressed  to  the  executive  di- 
rectory a  message  to  demand  of  it  an  account  of  the  execution  of 
the  laws  made  against  authors,  printers,  venders,  bill-stickers,  pro- 
clamations, addresses  provoking  the  re-establishment  of  royalty, 
the  overthrow  of  the  republic,  and  of  the  constitution  of  the  year  3. 

The  directory,  animated  with  the  same  sentiments  as  the  council, 
occupied  with  the  same  solicitudes,  and  when  your  message  ar- 
rived on  the  necessity  of  repressing  the  boldness  and  of  punishing 
the  criminality  of  revolutionary  writings,  was  the  object  of  its  most 
serious  deliberations. 

The  alarm  manifested  by  the  representatives  of  the  people  at 
the  moment  when  the  executive  power  had  felt  it  on  its  own  part, 
is  the  guarantee  of  the  happy  harmony,  the  salutarv  inielligencft. 


32  NOTES. 

which  prevails  amongst  the  first  authorities  of  the  republic.  This 
agreement  of  powers  may  teach  our  enemies  what  they  ought  to 
dread  from  the  active  vigilance  and  the  inflexible  severity  of  all 
republican  magistrates. 

But,  at  the  same  time,  this  conformity  of  views,  this  identity  of 
thoughts,  this  coincidence  of  disquietude,  has  prescribed  to  the  di- 
rectory an  examination,  more  considered,  a  meditation  more  pro- 
found upon  the  state  of  the  republic,  a  resolution  more  energetic, 
with  regard  to  those  who  have  conspired  against  it. 

The  directory  has  seen  the  external  efforts  of  the  coalition ;  it 
has  judged  of  the  power  of  them;  it  has  calculated  its  means  of 
resistance,  and  it  has  not  been  terrified.  It  has  said — the  republic 
ought  to  conquer,  because  it  feels  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  peo- 
ple of  France,  the  immensity  of  its  means,  the  extent  of  its  re- 
sources, the  ascendency  of  its  forces.  But  when  it  has  desired  to 
unite  these  means,  to  collect  these  resources,  to  make  these  forces, 
act,  it  has  found  them  attenuated,  weakened,  divided  by  the  fatal 
action  of  a  power  of  which  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  seek 
the  levers,  the  points  of  support,  and  the  agents. 

At  the  first  sight,  all  the  instruments  of  crime  and  misfortune 
are  unperceived  ;  the  insurrections  break  out  far  from  Paris  ;  the 
ministers,  the  commissioners  of  the  directory  seek  the  source  of 
it,  the  authors  of  it ;  they  can  only  find  the  effects. 

A  senseless,  blind  crowd,  follow  the  impulse  which  is  given  to 
it ;  the  conspiring  hand  which  has  impressed  it  escapes  inspection. 
We  see  fall,  struck  by  republican  thunder,  the  misled  citizen  to 
whom  they  have  given  arms,  whilst  the  chiefs,  who  have  corrupted 
his  ideas,  his  sentiments,  and  who  have  directed  his  blows,  are  not 
reached  by  the  public  vengeance. 

The  effect  of  the  evil  is  destroyed  or  rather  suspended;  the 
cause  subsists,  and  gives  presage  of  new  misfortunes.  The  direc- 
tory finds  it  always  in  the  corruption  of  public  opinion,  and  this  fatal 
perverting,  this  moral  corruption,  is  from  the  abuse  of  the  liberty 
of  the  press ;  it  is  to  the  perfidious  distribution  of  writings  infec- 
ted with  maxims  subversive  of  liberty,  of  order,  and  of  the  gov- 
ernment which  protects  them ;  it  is  to  the  propagation  of  counter- 
revolutionary ideas,  to  the  predictions  of  the  apostles  of  royalism, 
to  which  it  ought  to  be  attributed. 

It  is  not  possible  to  dissemble  it,  a  vast  and  atrocious  conspiracy 
exists  against  the  republic;  it  breaks  out  at  all  points;  it  strikes 
every  eye;  it  attacks  all  authorities;  threatens  all  true  republi- 
cans. 

What  if  the  conspirators  have  not  yet  the  insolent  boldness  to 
demand  witnesses,  to  require  proofs,  to  challeng:c  the  production  of 
matters  for  conviction  1  No  doubt  they  wish  that  their  projetts 
were  accomplished,  to  accord  with  what  they  had  formed ;  they 
wish  that  their  crime  should  be  questioned  until  its  accomplish- 
ment. 

But  at  this  moment  every  thing  betrays  and  accuses  them.  The 
witnesses  are  the  corpses  of  Republicans  slaughtered  in  the  south, 
massacred  in  the  west,  threatened  on  all  sides.  The  proofs  are  the 
insurrections  which  break  out  in  a  department  when  they  are 
hardly  stifled  in  another.  The  matters  for  conviction  are  the  lying 
writings,  the  incendiary  Journals,  the  execrable  libels  with  which 
the  Republic  is  inundated. 


NOTES.  33 

•  What  must  be  done  at  this  moment  to  ensure  the  common  safety, 

the  triumph  of  our  armies  and  peace  of  which  victory  is  the 
token? — There  only  requires  to  be  a  prompt  union  of  forces  and 
wills,  a  solemn  concert  between  the  people,  its  representatives,  its 
magistrates ;  let  there  be  the  active  execution  of  military  laws, 
organizing  our  battalions,  and  vivifying  laws  to  fill  the  public 
treasury. 

Well,  citizen  representatives,  the  periodical  sheets,  the  daily 
bills,  the  pamphlets  out  of  number  with  which  the  Republic  is 
covered,  sow  division  amongst  the  citizens,  inspire  suspicion  and 
hatred  against  the  representatives  and  the  magistrates  of  the  peo- 
ple, remove  the  conscripts  from  the  colors,  and  stop  the  sources  of 
the  public  revenue. 

The  audacious  writers  always  divide  themselves  into  two  bands, 
whose  suggestions  and  inspirations  produce  the  same  effects,  they 
march  separately  but  they  unite  at  a  point  assigned  :  ihey  follow 
two  opposite  routes  ;  but  the  tomb  of  the  Constitution  is  their  com- 
mon rendezvous.  The  death  of  the  Government  is  the  rallying 
word  of  their  impious  cohorts. 

The  one  preach  openly  contempt  to  Republican  laws  and  the  re- 
turn to  royalty. 

The  other  in  speaking  of  the  Republic,  in  proclaiming  them- 
selves the  privileged  Apostles,  its  exclusive  defenders,  attack  it 
in  its  elements  and  wish  to  arrive  at  its  destruction  by  the  annihi- 
lation of  the  powers  which  maintain  it,  of  the  laws  which  pre- 
serve it,  and  of  the  Constitution  which  establishes  it. 

Some,  as  the  Gluotidienne,  the  Mirror,  and  other  journals,  struck 
by  the  law  of  the  21st  Fructidor,  lavish  upon  legislators,  directors, 
generals,  members  of  civil  and  military  administranons  all  the  in- 
sults, and  all  the  outrages,  they  reproach  the  Republic  with  the 
crimes  of  tyranny.  Republicans  with  the  atrocities  which  Kings 
have  committed,  they  have  commanded  crimes,  they  have  paid  for 
them,  and  they  have  then  accused  of  them,  those  who  have  been 
their  victims. 

Others,  as  the  Journal,  which  the  freemen  are  exasperated  to  see 
bear  their  name,  calumniate,  denounce,  abuse  the  oldest  soldiers, 
the  warmest  friends,  the  most  devoted  admirers  of  Liberty  and  of 
the  Republic. 

For  them  no  legislator  is  virtuous,  no  magistrate  is  patriotic,  no 
administration  is  pure,  the  general  who  has  just  rallied  an  army  is 
a  traitor. 

In  their  eyes  no  law  is  good,  no  determination  is  useful,  no  mea- 
sure is  salutary.  According  to  their  judgment,  the  legislature  is 
without  energy,  without  knowledge,  the  directory  without  courage, 
the  citizens  without  devotedness,  the  country  without  children.  To 
believe  them  the  public  safety  could  only  be  hoped  for  from  a 
regeneration,  which,  after  their  manner  is  but  destruction.  They 
appeal  by  their  vows  and  their  regrets  to  the  times  which  preceded 
the  Constitutional  regime.  Citizen  representatives,  the  Executive 
directory  cannot  deceive  itself  The  true  and  immediate  agents 
of  the  conspiracy  which  occasion  these  alarms,  are  this  doubl'e 
band  of  parricidal  writers. — The  causes  of  our  internal  troubles 
are  in  the  odious  vocabulary  of  their  venomous  writings.  Trans- 
port yourselvss  in  thought  into  tkose  denartments  where  distance 
S2 


34  NOTES. 

renders  the  truth  more  slow  in  being  arrived  at ;  where  the  want 
of  information  renders  it  more  difficult  to  lay  hold  of. 

Royalisra  on  one  side  accuses  the  Republican  regime  with  all 
the  sacrifices,  with  all  the  privations  which  Kings  impose  upon  us, 
by  the  dangers  with  which  they  surround  us. 

Those  who  deck  themselves  on  the  colors  of  patriotism,  present 
in  other  terms  the  same  thoughts,  cause  to  be  heard  the  same  cla- 
mors, they  reproach  the  Grovernment  with  the  continuance  of 
evils  and  of  perils  which  they  have  hindered  it  to  remedy. 

This  concert  of  accusation  against  legitimate  authorities,  scat- 
ters fear  and  discouragement,  destroys  patriotism  and  leads  the 
abused  and  dejected  citizens  into  error  from  calumny,  and  into 
crime  from  despair.  What  can  the  feeble  dyke  which  the  laws 
and  the  tribunal  oppose,  do  against  the  devastating  torrent. 

The  laws  are  insufficient,  and  from  that  time  the  tribunals  are 
without  action.  What  avails  it  to  these  conspirators  of  all  shades, 
a  denunciation  which  only  strikes  their  names,  and  leaves  to  subsist 
and  envenom  still  their  writings;  an  accusation  before  a  tribunal 
whose  authority  they  insult  by  their  boldness,  whose  blow  they 
avoid  by  absence,  whose  condemnation  they  would  brave  by  flight. 
It  is  necessary  to  take  such  a  part  that  in  preparing  the  punishment 
of  the  crime  we  should  suspend  the  action  and  the  consequences. 

In  -this  difficult  position  the  Directory  has  sought  what  resolu- 
tions were  demanded  by  the  state  of  the  country,  what  resolutions 
were  permitted  by  the  law. 

It  considers  that  it  has  found  the  rule  of  its  duties,  and  the  limit 
of  its  authority  in  the  145th  Article  of  the  Constitution,  which 
says: 

"  If  the  Directory  is  informed  that  some  conspiracy  is  being 
hatched  against  the  internal  and  external  safety  of  the  state,  it  may 
ordain  mandates  to  bring  in,  and  mandate  of  arrest,  against  those 
who  are  presumed  to  be  the  authors  and  accomplices." 

Convinced  that  the  conspiracy  exists,  that  most  dangerous  agents 
are  those  who  devise,  prepare,  provoke  the  destruction  of  the  estab- 
lished government,  who  sow  division  amongst  all  the  citizens,  es- 
tablish them  by  taking  them  for  granted,  defame  all  reputations, 
calumniate  all  intentions,  stir  up  all  parties,  animate  all  factions, 
rekindle  all  hatred,  threaten  all  powers,  discredit  all  measures, 
discourage  all  agents,  disparage  the  national  representation,  ener- 
vate the  executive  authority,  insult  the  whole  nation, — the  directory 
has  ordained  mandates  of  arrest  against  the  authors  and  printers 
of  the  Official  Bulletin,  of  the  armies  of  the  coalition,  of  the  Pa- 
risienne,  of  the  GLuolidienne,  of  the  Courier  de  Paris,  of  the  Demo- 
crat, of  the  Mirror,  of  the  Feuille  du  Jour,  of  the  Recessaire,  of 
the  Freemen,  of  the  Gzondeur,  of  the  Defender  of  the  Country, 
being  a  continuation  to  the  Friend  of  the  People.  It  has  ordered 
that  the  seals  shall  be  placed  upon  the  presses  and  the  cabinets  of 
the  authors  and  printers  of  these  journals. 

Citizen  representatives,  the  law  authorizes,  the  circumstances 
require  the  preservative  act  which  the  Direccorj'-  announces  to 
you ;  it  is  a  duty  to  wrest  from  the  hands  of  a  few  parricidal  cor- 
rupt and  bold  conspirators,  the  fatal  weapons  wherewith  to  destroy 
their  country;  without  this  determination  the  people  would  impute 
their  sufferings  to  their  representatives,  to  their  magistrates,  in- 


NOTES,  36 

Stead  of  accusing  circumstances  over  which  they  could  have  no 
control. 

The  armies  would  attribute  to  dilapidation  or  to  malevolence, 
privations  which  a  penury,  about  to  cease,  has  but  too  much  pro- 
longed. 

Citizens  of  all  conditions  would  regard  the  Republican  regime 
as  the  source  of  evils  which  arise  only  from  the  attacks  by  which 
they  strive  to  destroy  it. 

In  conclusion,  error  propagated  would  have  multiplied  error, 
falsehood  would  have  continued  to  sow  hatred,  calumny  would  not 
have  ceased  to  prepare  crime,  revolt  would  have  brought  civil  war, 
the  overthrow  would  have  raised  royalty  again. 

The  Constitution  had  foreseen  the  danger,  it  had  prepared  the 
remedy;  the  Directory  has  made  use  of  it.  The  accused  are  in 
the  hands  of  the  law,  it  will  pronounce  upon  them. 

However  a  law  upon  the  abuses  of  the  press  would  have  pre- 
vented the  return  of  evils  of  which  the  Directory  is  about  to  arrest 
the  progress. 

In  the  meantime,  until  this  law  is  produced,  public  opinion  will 
no  longer  be  daily  perverted,  the  arrest  of  the  Journalists,  the  si- 
lence of  the  passions  which  they  stir  up,  will  permit  the  truth  to 
be  heard.  The  Directory  should  say  to  the  people  that  it  is  about, 
in  an  address,  to  enlighten  them  with  respect  to  their  interests,  to 
encourage  them  with  respect  to  their  dangers,  without  concealing 
them,  to  develop  their  resources  without  exaggerating  them,  and 
to  revive  hopes  in  giving  them  the  measure  of  their  strength. 

Thus  the  coalition  baffled,  conquered  in  the  interior  will  soon  be 
conquered  upon  the  frontiers,  thus  justice  and  power  will  ensure  the 
return  of  order  and  prepare  for  the  return  of  peace. 

The  Directory  invites  you  to  take  into  your  most  prompt  consid- 
eration the  object  of  this  message  which  it  has  addressed  to  you  on 
the  crimes  of  the  Press, 

Signed,  Syeyes,  President. 
Signed,  Lagarde,  Secretary  General. 

22nd.  The  Executive  Directory  to  the  French  nation  of  the 
17th  Fructedor,  year  7  of  the  French  Republic. 

Frenchmen, — 

It  is  in  the  name  of  the  common  safety,  in  the  name  of  the  inter- 
ests of  the  country  that  the  Directory  addresses  itself  to  you,  that 
it  would  rally  you  round  the  standard  of  the  Republic. 

In  vain  factions  disturb,  in  vain  cri.me  conspires,  in  vain  the 
stranger  rewards,  stirs  up,  and  sets  the  passions  in  a  flame. 

People  of  France,  the  voice  of  your  magistrates  will  borrow  from 
yourselves  a  force,  a  power  capable  of  making  itself  heard,  of 
making  the  truth  resound  from  one  extremity  of  the  Republic  to 
the  other. 

Republicans  hear  the  depositories  of  authority,  it  is  of  you  they 
wish  to  speak,  it  is  for  your  advantage  they  wish  to  persuade  you, 
it  is  for  your  interests  that  they  need  to  convince  you. 

Learn  from  tke  Directory  what  is  the  nature  of  the  dangers  of 
your  country  :  it  is  convinced  that  the  majority  of  Frenchmen  are 
r&solved  to  remove  from  the  Republic  all  the  misfortunes  which 
threaten  it ;  that  personal  interest  demands  this  resolution  even 
from  those  with  whom  the  love  of  liberty  and  their  country  is  not 


86  NOTES. 

sufficient  to  awalven  it.  But  this  disposition  of  mind  will  be  sterile 
without  fruit,  if  we  do  not  submit  to  those  sacrifices  which  the  law 
commands,  if  we  do  not  silence  the  factions,  if  we  do  not  know 
how  to  protect  ourselves  from  egotism,  if  we  do  not  place  our  faces 
together  in  order  to  dissipate  fears  and  realize  hopes. 

Learn  that  no  League  of  Tyrants  has  ever  triumphed  over  a 
great  people,  if  a  part  of  the  people  is  not  become  an  accomplice 
in  this  tyranny  by  neglecting  to  develop  the  means  of  defence,  if 
it  has  not  beforehand  weakened  by  its  divisions. 

Learn  that  the  resentments  of  your  enemies  threaten  you  all, 
that  you  would  all  be  struck  by  their  vengeance. 

Learn  that  the  return  of  royalty  would  increase  tenfold  the  evils 
and  the  sacrifices  of  which  you  complain,  and  that  the  only  way 
of  shortening  the  duration  of  them,  and  of  diminishing  their  ex- 
tent, is  the  resolution  to  bear  them  with  energy  and  to  devote  your- 
self with  courage. 

Learn  in  fact  that  you  are  placed  between  the  shame  of  yielding, 
and  the  glory  of  conquering,  that  if  you  are  conquered,  infamy 
will  not  save  you  from  misfortune,  if  you  are  victorious,  happiness 
and  repose  will  make  you  forget  the  days  of  suffering  and  alarm : 
peace  and  abundance  will  repair  all  losses,  and  will  be  the  reward 
of  all  sacrifices. 

No  doubt  there  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Republic  a  considerable 
mass  of  citizens  who  are  disinterested  admirers,  and  generous 
lovers  of  liberty. 

No  doubt  there  are  a  great  number  of  minds  in  which  burns  the 
iire  of  a  pure  patriotism,  in  which  reigns  the  most  lively  and  pro- 
found sentiments  of  French  honor  and  of  national  dignity.  These 
are  exasperated  at  the  thought  of  seeing  the  territory  of  our  allies 
defiled,  and  stained  with  blood  from  the  presence  and  the  arms  ol 
•lespots. 

They  do  not  calculate  whether  liberty  has  need  of  them  for  its 
defence,  they  feel  that  they  have  need  of  liberty  in  order  to  their 
existence ;  they  love  the  laws  of  the  Republic,  they  cherish  its 
principles,  and  hate  in  an  equal  degree  the  maxims  of  despots,  the 
debasing  forms  of  their  courts,  the  shameful  bondage  of  their  cour- 
tier.s,  and  their  slaves. 

These  have  nothing  which  they  are  not  ready  to  sacrifice  for 
their  country.  Their  fortune  and  their  lives  are  devoted  to  the 
defence  of  liberty.  To  these  ardent  Republicans  is  united  a  crowd 
of  those  who  have  given  a  pledge  to  the  resolution,  having  been 
seen  only  in  the  ranks  of  the  friends  of  equality,  having  been 
reckoned  amongst  the  number  of  its  defenders,  know  that  their 
names  are  proscribed  by  Tyrants.  How  many  Citizens  there  are 
who  forget  or  who  dissemble  their  title  to  the  hatred,  their  rights 
to  their  resentment,  to  the  vengeance  of  the  friends  of  the  throne, 
if  it  should  ever  raise  itself  again  !" 

Let  them  abjure  so  unhappy  an  allusion  as  well  for  them  as  for 
their  country.  Let  them  know  that  amongst  all  Frenchmen,  a 
very  small  number  excepted,  there  exists  a  common  responsibility 
for  all  the  events  of  the  revolution. 

These  shades  of  opinion,  these  disastrous  denominations  which 
have  sent  to  the  scaflfbld  or  devoted  to  the  poinard  the  patriotism 
and  the  courage,  the  talents  and  the  virtue  which  still  at  the  present 
time  divide  Republican  France,  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  look  with- 


NOTES,  37 

in,  they  exist  only  for  strangers,  and  emigrants,  the  disciples  of 
royalty.  The  coalition  would  make  the  tricolor  Flag,  the  funeral 
flag  of  all  those  who  have  hoisted  it  as  of  all  those  who  have  fol- 
lowed it,  of  those  who  planted  it  upon  the  walls  of  the  Basulle|  oa 
the  14th  of  July,  as  of  those  who  raised  it  upon  the  Tuilleries  the 
10th  of  August.  The  Constituents,  the  Legislators  of  1791  and 
the  Conventionalists  of  1792  are  a  bond  in  the  eyes  of  the  coalition 
for  the  overthrow  of  despotism,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Throne. 

The  oath  taken  at  the  Tennis  Court  to  Liberty,  is  to  them  a 
crime  equal  to  all  those  which  have  been  committed  since  the  Re- 
public, 

You  do  not  know  how  the  royalists  under  the  power  of  whom 
the  coalesced  powers  wish  to  make  you  return,  are  rigorous  in  the 
examination  of  conduct  and  in  the  judgment  of  opinions,  how  few 
amongst  you  are  innocent  and  pure  in  their  eyes.  You  do  not 
know  how  they  have  treated  even  amongst  the  Emigrants  those 
who  had  not  professed  their  religious  respect,  their  profound  sub- 
mission to  the  senseless  dogma  of  absolute  despotism. 

You  are  ignorant,  perhaps,  that  several  of  these  monarchical 
protestants  have  been  obliged  to  conquer  by  singular  combats  the 
shameful  honor  of  obtaining  a  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  army  of 
Conde. 

You  would  not  suspect  with  what  fury  the  hired  writers  of  Eng- 
land and  of  the  council  of  the  Pretender  inspired  by  aristocratic 
and  priestly  hatred,  proclaim  resentments  and  call  for  vengeanee, 
If  the  bloody  pages  of  the  history  of  England,  or  the  reign  of 
Charles  and  of  James  the  2d,  do  not  suffer  to  depict  to  you  the  fate 
which  is  destined  to  France  by  those  who  would  raise  up  again  the 
Throne — if  the  scaffold  of  Sydney  is  not  sufficiently  eloquent,  profit 
by  the  example  which  is  offered  you  at  Milan,  and  at  Naples  by 
the  Tyrants,  who  have  for  a  moment  seized  again  upon  power ; 
even  infancy  and  old  age  have  not  been  respected. 

See  what  a  fate  is  reserved  for  all  those  who  have  loved  and 
served  liberty,  those  who  have  spoken  as  well  as  those  who  have 
fought  for  it:  some  receive  death,  others  wait  for  it  in  chains. 

If  you  are  not  conquerors.  Frenchmen,  behold  the  future! 

And  do  not  flatter  yourselves  to  escape  by  the  obscurity  of  your 
condition,  by  the  smallness  of  your  services,  find  the  little  of  pub- 
licity in  your  opinions,  from  the  active  animosity  of  a  royal  and 
sanguinary  reaction. 

No  doubt  the  first  blows  world  fall  upon  men  the  most  known, 
and  would  cause  the  heads  of  the  most  ardent  Republicans  to  falL 
But  after  these  first  sacrifices  which  royal  vengeance  would  re- 
quire, there  would  be  some  more  obscure  whom  the  monarch  would 
give  to  serve  inferior  passions  in  a  slower  degree,  the  progressive 
action  of  which  would  overrun  all  ranks,  reach  all  conditions,  em- 
brace all  epochs. 

Then  the  military  would  be  reached  who  would  not  shoot  the 
provokers  of  the  States  General,  the  members  of  the  States  of 
Dauphiny  and  of  Brittany  in  1778,  as  he  who  had  not  imitated 
Lambese  in  1789,  he  who  promised  to  serve  the  nation  at  the  flight 
of  the  King  in  1791,  as  he  who  has  since  sworn  fidelity  to  the 
Republic. 

Then  would  be  pursued  the  signers  of  those  numerous  addresses 
of  adhesion,  which  arrived  from  all  carts  of  France  to  the  States 


^38  NOTES. 

iGeneral,  ibecdme  the  National  Assembly,  and  which  would  be  ex- 
tracted from  the  archives  in  order  to  become  titles  of  proscription, 
as  those  who  have  applauded  oiher  epochs  of  the  revolution.  Then 
would  be  attached  all  the  generous  plebeians  who  organized,  arm- 
ed, and  commanded  the  National  Guard,  with  which  in  a  moment 
was  covered  the  soil  of  regenerated  France. 

Then  would  be  sacrificed  those  honorable  deserters  of  the  privi- 
leged caste  who  came  to  range  themselves  in  the  Battalions  of 
Freemen  to  render  homage  to  equality. 

Then  would  be  delivered  up  to  the  sacerdotal  anathema,  the 
priests  who  shook  off  the  yoke  of  Rome  in  179v0,  as  those  who  ab- 
jured their  religion  in  1793;  those  who  preserved' their  functions, 
and  swore  fidelity  to  the  Laws  of  the  Republic,  as  .those  who 
changed  their  condition  and  submitted  to  the  rites  of  wedlock. — 
Then  would  be  persecuted  all  those  magistrates  who  have  been 
honored  by  the  choice  of  the  people,  who  after  silting  upon  the 
Fleurs  delis,  have  judged  in  the  popular  tribunals.  '  Their  probity 
would  not  justify  them  in  the  eyes  of  their  enemies,  irritated  at  not 
being  able  to  give  a  false  motive  for  their  cruelty. — Then  would 
be  sought  out  all  the  administrators  of  Districts  and  of  departments, 
all  municipal  othcers,  however  they  may  be  distinguished  for  their 
civism,  or  their  devotedness,  or" whether  they  only  had  the  title 
without  the  function,  Whether  they  desired  the  Constitution  of '91, 
or  that  of  '93,  or  that  of  the  year  '3  ;  all  are  equally  odious  and  cul- 
pable for  having  borne  the  colors  of  liberty. 

Then  would  be  submitted  to  ecclesiastical  censure,  as  well  as  to 
civil  degradation,  the  husband  whom  a  divorce  has  freed  from  an 
unhappy  connexion,  from  the  danger  of  offending  morals  ;  then  the 
legitimate  and  cherished  fruits  of  a  happy  union  without  a  name, 
without  condition,  without  parents,  repulsed  from  society  in  the 
name  of  God  and  of  the  monarchy. 

Then  private  hatred  would  redouble  in  activity;,  then  the  royal 
agents  would  receive  all  denunciations,  would  help  every  intem- 
perate rage,  republicanism  would  be  the  crime  of  every  one  who 
should  have  an  enemy,  or  one  who  may  be  envious  or  jealous  of 
them,  even  the  Royalist  would  be  laid  hold  of  by  calumny,  and  per- 
sonal safety  would  no  longer  exist  for  any  citizen. 

Property  would  be  no  longer  respected ;  the  overthrow  of  For- 
tunes would  be  universal,  and  the  necessary  consequence  the  im- 
mediate return  of  royalty.  •  :•,;  v  : 

First  the  ecclesiastical  tithes  would  be  claimed,  the  Bible  in  the 
hand,  by  the  Priests,  as  the  terrage,  the  field  rent  and  the  quit  rent, 
would  be  by  the  nobles;  right,  divine,  feudal  right,  the  Throne  and 
the  altar,  would  renew  their  ancient  alliance,  would-  levy  tribute 
again  of  the  territorial  productions  of  France,  the  fruit  of  the  ad- 
vances of  Proprietors,  the  product  of  the  toil  of  the  cultivators, 
and  to  recover  this  heavy  and  iniquifous  tax,  the  soil  of  the  repub- 
lic would  offer  again  to  humiliated  Frenchmen,  the  hideous  spec- 
tacle of  prisons,  of  the  gallows,  of  chains,  and  of  the  iron  collar. 
Frenchmen,  picture  to  yourselves  the  convulsions,  the  rending,  the 
overturning  which  would  follow  such  events,  and  if  you  doubt 
their  reality,  cast  your  eyes  upon  the  territory  of  the  allied  republics. 

The  first  act  of  conquerors  has  been  to  despoil  the  purchasers  of 
national  domains;  a  proclamation  of  the  general  enemy  has  suf- 
.fiped  to  spoliate  and  condemn  to  mendicity,  to  despair,  thousands 


NOTE^.  39 

of  citizens,  who  expect  that  victory  will  reinstate  them  in  their  po^i 
sessions. — 

And  Frenchmen  would  be  destined  to  such  evil? — they  would 
undergo  such  shame.  Ferocious  strangers^  barbarous  hordes  would 
give  the  insolent  orders  of  their  chief:5  in  the  place  of  the  sovereign 
will  of  the  nation  !  :o..      '.   .° 

They  would  dispose  of  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  th'e  citizens,' 
They  would  give  as  in  the  time  of  the  conquests  of  the  Gauls,  the 
properties  to  their  soldiers,  would  carry  of  their  moveable  wealth,' 
would  despoil  our  museums  of  their  Ancient  monuments  and  those 
-which  we  have  added  at  the  price  of  the  blood  of  our  warnors.-^'^^ 

Frenchmen,  these  misfortunes  will  never  be  realized.  Yoti]? 
courage  will  know  how  to  prevent  them  ;  bat  the  picture  of  them 
serves  at  least  to  revive  the  patriotism  of  lukewarm  spirits,  to  en- 
lighten improvident  minds,  to  rally  all  hearts  to  one  sentiment,  to 
a  common  desire,  that  of  conquering  our  enemies  and  making  thd 
republic  triumphant.  .i   ,,;  ■.f!i'>i 

Citizens  of  all  conditions,  believe  that  the  Directory  whOSemehi- 
bers  lived  lately  in  the  midst  of  you,  has  seen  near  at  hand  y6ur 
evils  and  your  wants,  and  calculated  with  grief  the  extent  of  the 
privations  and  sacrifices  which  an  imminent  peril  has  forced  the 
laws  to  demand  of  you.  It  knows  what  the  hu.'ybandman  feeks, 
deprived  momentarily  of  the  arm  which  aided  him  in  his  labors, 
the  widow  -regretting  the  loss  of  the  son  who  soothed  her  sorrows, 
the  soldier  who  has  asked,  often  in  vain  for  alms,  subsistence  and 
clothing,  the  artisan  for  whom  work  is  scarce,  the  manufacturer 
whose  productions  languish,  the  artist  whose  talent  is  without  en- 
couragement, the  proprietor  whose  domains  are  depreciated.  Be- 
lieve that  the  pains,  the  suffering.s,  the  misfortunes,  the  most  re- 
moved from  its  regards  are  not  the  less  present  to  its  solicitude. 

Indulge  the  hope  with  the  Directory  that  the  endeavors  which  it 
is  charged  to  make  in  the  name  of  the  Law  which  it  claims  in  th6 
name  of  the  country,  which  it  invokes  in  the  name  of  your  dearest 
interests  will  be  the  certain  pledges  of  success,  of  glory,  of  pacifi- 
cation and  of  happiness. — 

These  efforts,  the  armies  expect  in  order  to  secure  victory  undei^ 
our  bann^rsijtbe  brigands  of  the  West,  and,  of  the  South  expect 
them,  tahid-e  far  off  their  infamy  and  their  crime,  the  allied  repub- 
lic expe'ct  them  in  order  to  revive  liberty,  the  friendly  powers  in 
order  to  persevere  in  their  fidelity  the  whole  republic  in  order  to 
be  without  alarms. — 

These  efforts  which  will  be  the  last  because  they  will  ensure  us 
triumphs,  national  pride  would  suffice  to  inspire  them  ; — the  inter- 
est of  all  compels  them — they  must  be  placed  between  the  people  of 
France  and  the  misfortunes  with  which  the  return  of  royalty 
threatens  us. 

Frenchmen,  think  upon  the  incontestible  facts,  upon  the  certain 
details,  theilnportantTefleclions  which  ;the  Directory  have  placed 
before  you.  If  your  minds  are  struck,  if  your  hearts  are  affected 
at  the  dangers  of  your  country,  if  you  wish  to  make  them  cease, 
carry  into  effect  the  laws  with  exactness,  with  eagerness :  rally 
round  the  republican  standard,  saciiAce  your  resentments,  abjure 
your  hatreds,  drive  away  every  irritating  remembrance,  pardon 
errors,  and  weaknesses,  make  war  only  against  crime,  attack  only 
Ihe  enemies  of  the  republic. — Let  probity,  patriotism  and  courage 


40  '  NOIES. 

•understand  each  other,  draw  near  and  unite  tog^ether. — The  forces 
concentrated,  are  immense,  nothing  can  j  resist  the  all-prevailing 
power  of  yours,  the  Directory  will  obtain  from  without  the  peace 
which  will  ensure  victory  ;  and  within,  the  peace  which  will  guar- 
antee justice. 

The  Executive  Directory  decrees  that  the  aforesaid  proclama- 
tion shall  be  inserted  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Laws,  and  that  it  shall 
be  printed,  published  in  all  the  communes  of  the  republic  in  the 
accustomed  places,  and  sent  to  the  Armies. 

The  Ministers  of  Justice,,  of  the  Interior,,  of  War,  and  of  General 
Police  are  charged  each  in  that  which  concerns  them  with  the 
execution  of  the  present  deeiee. 

Liong  live  the  Republic  t 

(23)  Disconrse  pronounced  by  the  Citizen  Syeyes,.  President  of 
the  Executive  Directory,  at  the  commemorative  fete  of  the  18tb 
Fructidor. 

Citizens, 

We  owe  to  the  day  of  the  18th  Fructidor,  (which  we  celebrate 
for  the  second  time  the  return — )  for  having  destroyed,  of  all  the 
conspiracies  formed  against  the  Republic,  that  perhaps  which  was 
the  most  powerfully  concocted  in  order  to  effect  its  ruin. 

The  Republic  without  continued  to  astonish  with  its  glory  every 
one  who  had  not  continued  strangers  to  human  revolutions ;  agi- 
tated for  a  long  period  within,  it  began  at  length  to  repose  upon  a 
constitution,  when  Royalism,  always  indefatigable,  sought  to  lay 
hold  of  this  first  repose,  and  to  turn  it  entirely  to  its  own  triumph. 
It  had  obtained  an  increase  of  its  forces,  from  that  unreflecting 
multitude  who  believed  they  could  not  too  much  hate  times  which 
yet  weighed  upon  all  remembrances,  and  did  not  see  that  those 
who  pretended  to  avenge  them,  were  only  fit  to  reproduce  them. 
From  that  tin>e  it  conceived  and  executed,  almost  upon  all  points 
of  the  Republic,  a  vast  plan  of  organization  by  which  it  might  in- 
vade every  means  of  action,  ev^ery  means  of  resistance. — Its  agents 
were  everywhere:  some  marching  openly,  others  concealed.  They 
knew  to  what  point  they  dare  go.  Become  masters,  or  rather  ty- 
rants of  opinion,  by  journals,  by  pamphlets,  by  all  foreign  means 
of  influence,  they  commanded  a  party  at  the  eleetions,  and  intro- 
duced treason  amongst  all  the  authorities.  Every  thing  bore  the 
stamp  of  their  cruel  intervention.  Inflexible  against  the  slightest 
wrongs  of  the  sincere  friends  of  liberty ;  they  only  knew  of  indul- 
gence for  the  crimes  of  its  enemies. 

In  the  name  even  of  humanity,  they  excited  hatreds,  stirred  up 
furies,  promoted  vengeances,  and  when  from  the  number  of  assas- 
sinations, their  own  work,  they  carried  every  where  amongst  re- 
publican families,  mourning  and  fear^they  wondered  that  any  one 
should  dare  to  be  disquieted  at  it.  Soon  they  had  no  longer  need 
to  disguise  themselves.  The  name  of  Republican  became  a  re- 
proach, the  Emigrants  returned  with  security  and  in  the  midst  of 
those  who  had  called  them,  they  wiped  out  the  reproach  of  being 
too  timid  counter-Revolutionists.  It  was  not  they  who  were  guilty  j 
it  was  those  who  having  dared  to  attack  their  privileges,  had  con- 
strained them,  they  said,  to  desert  France.  At  length,  the  glory 
of  the  French  Armies  was  itself  a  wrong,  which  they  reserved  the 
expiation  of,  to  another  day.    And  already  they  were  provoked  at 


NOTES.  41 

the  cries  of  liberty  which  were  heard  in  the  midst  of  the  songs  of 
victory. 

How  much  the  fall  of  the  Republic,  then  appeared  certain  to 
men  impatient  to  make  us  return  under  the  yoke! — But  all  this 
scaffolding  was  doomed  to  fall  in  one  day.  It  was  only  necessary 
to  Republicans,  in  order  |to  remove  danger,  to  rally  together;  to 
make  those  return  to  the  ranks  who  felt  the  need  of  a  Government, 
and  of  order:  should  necessarily  make  them  at  length  find  force 
and  direction  in  the  first  authorities. 

This  happy  change  was  effected  on  the  18lh  Fructidor,  under 
the  inspiration  of  liberty.  No  effusion  of  blood  saddened  the  vic- 
tory ;  and  the  French  nation  owes  to  it  the  not  having  been  entirely 
plunged  in  a  civil  war.  .  .  .  The  day  of  the  9th  Thermidor  put 
an  end  to  the  action  so  cruelly  prolonged  of  a  dreadful  tyranny. 
Day  of  the  18; h  Fructidor,  thou  hast  put  an  end  in  thy  return  to 
reaction  not  less  insupportable,  which  went  to  annihilate  the  re- 
public and  every  hope  of  liberty. 

These  two  days  have  been  the  reparation  of  many  evils.  Why 
have  they  not  dried  up  the  source  of  them  !  Both  were  indispen- 
sable, both  however  cost  tears  to  republicans — Citizens,  you  all 
wish,  without  doubt,  at  once  to  prevent  the  return  as  to  guarantee 
us  hereafter  from  the  times  which  they  would  recal  to  us:  march 
then,  constantly  united  in  the  route  which  is  so  plainly  marked  out 
to  you.  The  two  first  authorities  of  the  Republic  have  made  you 
to  hear  in  the  name  of  L-iberty,  this  consolatory  cry, — no  more 
terror,  no  more  reaction  in  France,  justice  and  liberty  for  all. — 
Frenchmen  we  know  that  it  is  also  the  most  ardent  of  your  vows. 
In  this  agreement  of  retirement  is  a  certain  pledge  that  notwith- 
standing all  our  Enemies,  a  vow  truly  national  will  be  accom- 
plished. 

The  hopes,  I  know,  which  have  been  engraven  in  our  hearts  by 
the  most  solemn  declarations  have  not  all  yet  been  fulfilled.  No, 
they  have  not  wnthout  doubt. — But  see  with  how  many  ob'-tacles 
the  zeal  of  the  Government  has  been  retarded.  These  obstacles 
will  yield  to  the  perseverance  of  its  efforts,  if  you  lend  it  the  invin- 
ciple  support  of  your  union,  whatever  may  be  the  ambition  of  those 
who  shake  around  it  the  brands  of  discord,  which  they  desire  to 
throw  amongst  us,  and  the  incomprehensible  suspicions  which  they 
spread  throughout  the  Republic,  you  know  that  it  exists  ,but  for 
you,  that  all  its  glory  is  in  your  glory,  all  its  happiness  in  your 
happiness;  that  it  has  not,  that  it  cannot  have  any  other  interest 
but  yours,  it  will  therefore  not  cease  then  to  tell  you  with  confi- 
dence; rally  round  the  Constitutional  Authorities,  for  a  safeguard 
cannot  be  found  beyond  them  for  your  repose  and  your  liberty. 
And  at  what  time  will  you  more  feel  this  imperiou.^  need  7  The 
course  of  our  triumphs  has  been  interrupted  for  some  moments, 
and  we  mourn  the  irreparable  loss  of  that  young  hero  whose  mag- 
nanimous virtues  and  talents  promised  us  so  many  victories. 
Every  day  we  receive  the  horrible  details  of  a  Counter  Revolution 
which  has  just  broke  forth  like  a  clap  of  thunder  in  a  country  but 
lately  renewed  by  liberty ;  and  behold  in  us  the  contemporaries  of 
a  Royal  vengeance  exercised  upon  a  people  who  desire  to  be  free. 
A  foreign  influence  is  arrived  to  relight  a  civil  war  in  several  de- 
partments and  the  blood  of  Frenchmen  has  again  flowed  under  the 
hands  of  Frenchmen.  The  coalesced  powers  have  dared  to  say 
T 


42  NOTES. 

Ihey  are  sure  to  tear  up  the  Republic  either  by  their  sword,  or  our 
own  ! — Citizens,  this  picture  might  change  at  once.  The  resources 
of  the  people  of  France  are  without  limits. — Every  thing  yields  to 
the  energy  of  their  will  when  united ;  how  criminal  then  would 
those  be  who  would  bring  in  discord  ! — I  say  but  another  word: — 
Citizens,  think,  that  if  in  the  honorable  struggle  which  you  have 
sustained  for  these  ten  years,  your  divisions  make  you  yield,  you 
would  become  the  fable  of  the  world,  and  it  only  belongs  to  you 
to  be  the  example  of  it. 

Long  live  the  Rcpvilic. 


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Translated  by  THOMAS  LELAND,  D.D. 


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Translated  by  WILLIAM  ROSE,  M.A. 
With  Improvements  and  Notes. 


In  2  vols.  ISmo.,  with  a  Portrait, 
Translated  by  WILLIAM  DUNCAN. 


141  Interesting  Works 

In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

CICERO. 

The  Orations  translated  by  DUNCAN,  the  Offices  by  COCKMAN, 
and  the  Cato  arid  Lselius  by  MELMOTH. 


In  2  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

VIRGIL. 

The  Eclogues  translated  by  WRANGHAM,  the  Georgics  by 
SOTHEBY,  and  the  ^neid  by  DRYDEN. 


In  one  vol.  18mo., 

iESCHYLUS. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  R.  POTTER,  M.A. 


In  one  vol.  I8mo.,  vvdth  a  Portrait, 

SOPHOCLES. 

Translated  by  THOMAS  FRANCKLIN,  D.D. 


In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

EURIPIDES. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  R.  POTTER,  M.A. 


In  2  vols.  ISmo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HORACE. 

Translated  by  PHILIP  FRANCIS,  D.D. 
With  an  Appendix,  containing  translations  of  various  Odes,  &c. 

By   BEN  JONSON,   COWLEY,   MILTON,  DRYDEN,  POPE,  ADDISON,  SWIFT, 
BENTLEY,   CHATTERTON,  G.   WAKEFIELD,  POBSON,  BYRON,  he 

And  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  Poets  of  the  present  day. 

i  P  H  ^  D   R  U  S. 

;  With  the  Appendix  of  Gudius. 

'  Translated  by  CHRISTOPHER  SMART,  A.M 


i 


published  by  Harper  <f  Brothers.  13 

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OVID. 

•Srarjslated  by  DRYDEN,  POPE,  CONGREVE,  ADDISON, 

and  others. 


In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HERODOTUS. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  BELOE. 


In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HOMER. 

Translated  by  ALEXANDER  POPE,  Esq. 


In  5  vols.  ISmo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

L  I  V  y. 

Translated  by  GEORGE  BAKER,  A.M. 


In  2  vols.  ISmo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

THUCYDIDES. 

Translated  by  WILLIAM  SMITH,  A.M. 


In  one  vol.  8vo.,  with  Plates, 

PLUTARCH'S  LIVES. 

Translated  from  the  original  Greek,  with  Notes,  Crit- 
ical and  Historical,  and  a  Life  of  Plutarch. 
By  JOHN  LANGHORNE,  D.D.,  and  Wm.  LANGHORNE,  A.M. 
A  New  Edition,  carefully  revised  and  corrected. 


t  In  one  vol.  12mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

In  Latin  Prose. 

By  FRANCIS  GLASS,  A.M.,  of  Ohio. 

Edited  by  J.  N.  Reynolds. 


Interesting   Work9 
In  one  vol.  8vo,, 

or  the  Relation  which  Words  bear  to  Things. 
By  A.  B.  JOHNSON. 


In  one  vol.  8vo.,  with  numerous  Illustrative  Engravings, 

THE  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  SURVEYING ; 
containmg  all  the  Instructions  requisite  for  the  skilful  practice 

of  this  art. 
With  a  new  set  of  accurate  Mathematical  Tables. 

By  ROBERT  GIBSON. 

Newly  arranged,  improved,  and  enlarged,  with  useful  selections, 

by  .Tames  Ryan. 


In  one  vol.  8vo., 

AN   ELEMENTARY   TREATISE  ON   MECHANICS. 

Translated  from  the  French  of  M.  Loucharlat. 

With  additions  and  emendations,  designed  to  adapt  it  to  the  use  of 
the  Cadets  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy. 

By  EDWARD  H.  COURTENAY. 


In  one  vol.  48mo., 
CJ)e  3Etclicule  ntCO  iSocfeet  Companion  j 

OR, 

MINIATURE  LEXICON  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 

By  LYMAN  COBB. 


In  one  vol.  8vo., 

With  copious  Illustrations  and  Explanations,  drawn  from  the 

best  Writers, 

By  GEORGE  CRABB   M.A. 


92B64 
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